MOTHOBI LEAVES EGG ON BDF COMMANDER’S FACE

Recruit private Tsholofelo Mothobi, daughter of prominent spy Dzikamani Mothobi, left Botswana Defence Force (BDF) commander Lieutenant General Placid Segokgo with egg on his face yet again. This, after the Court of Appeal (CoA) dismissed Segokgo’s bid against a 2020 High Court decision.

Mothobi and the army commander have been engaged in a legal battle after Mothobi dragged her former employer to court, suing for unfair dismissal.

Mothobi was discharged from Regular Force during her recruit private training in May 2016 on medical grounds.

She consequently lost her appeal before the Defence Council in April 2017 as the council agreed with the BDF Medical Board that she was not fit for military duty given the ‘severity of her mental illness’.

Her discharge was dramatic and inexplicable given that she had received a clean bill of health from the Glen Valley Clinic and other medical specialists who had assessed her.

At the time when this happened, it was alleged this was a ploy designed to frustrate her father, who was allegedly not on good terms with the BDF top brass as he was part of the Military Intelligence Unit at the time. Following her dismissal, Mothobi then approached the court challenging the decision of the BDF commander and that of the Defence Council. In September 2020, the Lobatse High Court judge Reuben Lekorwe agreed with Mothobi that her discharge from active military was unprocedural and unlawful. Justice Lekorwe then reviewed and set aside the decision of the BDF commander on costs.

The BDF then launched an appeal against Lekorwe’s judgement. The appeal was heard by a panel of three CoA justices namely Isaac Lesetedi, Singh Walia and Leatile Dambe, who all concurred that the High Court was right in reviewing the proceedings and setting aside the decision of the commander to discharge the respondent from the military. When handing down the judgement on Friday, Justice Lesetedi said Mothobi was entitled to a fair hearing before a decision to discharge her was taken. “Where the person was not afforded a fair hearing before the decision was taken, the decision was voidable at the instance of the respondent,” read the CoA’s judgement.

The judges agreed that Mothobi was not given reasonable time to assemble relevant information, to prepare, and put forward her representations. It is said that the BDF had withheld psychiatrist Dr Zoran Zoric’s medical report from Mothobi, when she appeared before the Medical Board. Her discharge from the military was based on Zoric’s report that she was considered unfit for military service. The BDF had argued in their submission that the report was confidential.

The CoA said the BDF commander violated the rules of natural justice in a very fundamental manner by concealing a doctor’s report, which contained prejudicial information from Mothobi prior to her appearing before the Medical Board. “The proceedings before the Board of Inquiry were a sham and fundamentally flawed,” stated Lesetedi. As it is, Mothobi is now awaiting a big payout following her years of inaction.