A national crisis is when State Organs turn rogue
To say that the credibility of the Directorate of Intelligence and Security ( DIS), Directorate of Public Prosecution ( DPP), and Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime ( DCEC) has hit rock bottom will be an understatement of the century.
If ever there was any grain of integrity left for these state organs, it was certainly wiped out by Gaborone High Court Judge Dr. Zein Kebonang this week when dismissing all charges against DIS officer, Welheminah Maswabi, also known as ‘ Butterfly’.
According to the judge, the state through the DPP, DCEC, and the DIS offices “fabricated and manipulated evidence, framed and falsely implicated” Maswabi.
This is a low blow for organisations that should naturally command public trust and confidence. These are institutions on which the nation’s security rests.
As Judge Kebonang has stated, the conduct of these state agencies has chilling effects on the rights and civil liberties of Maswabi.
The latter was represented by the best brains in the legal circles; now imagine an ordinary Motswana from a rural area who has no means to hire the best lawyer while facing trumped- up charges?
This is not the first high- profile case that the DIS, DCEC, and DPP were involved in but ended up being dismissed by the courts of law.
Surely these State organs are not doing something right, or in the words of Judge Kebonang, they have simply gone rogue.
President Masisi must do something to restore the credibility of these organisations. Surely, as judge Kebonang has ruled, citizens must never be terrified of their own government, and those who exercise public power must do so honestly.
The country itself has also suffered immense harm from these contrived prosecutions. It also seems there is no coordination between the DPP, DIS, and the DCEC. This explains why they lose these high- profile cases.
Or perchance, should the public accept the Opposition’s claims that these court cases were politically motivated? If this is true, we are afraid our country has gone to the dogs, and salvaging it could be a long- drawn battle.
That is simply because it would imply that the trite mantra of strict observance to the principle of separation of powers would turn out to be nothing more than a façade!
In such a case, the Head of the Executive would be encumbered by reason of ‘ association’ to act on the recommendation of Judge Kebonang, which imposes on him an obligation to fire the Director of the Directorate of Public Prosecution, which is an adjunct of the Judiciary, and by inference, supposedly an independent arm of Government.
Worse still, Judge Kebonang’s judgment, coming as it does, whilst the DPP awaits provision of Mutual Legal Assistance from South Africa’s Department of Justice, has the potential to further strain the already fractured relations between Botswana and her southern neighbour.
Again, the case has certainly dealt devastating reputational harm to our central bank – the Bank of Botswana ( BoB), which had been implicated in what amounted to money laundering and fraud.
It is time for President Masisi to make good on his promise to spill the beans – Was this an orchestrated political case or is there more than meets the eye?