Election rigging whistleblower speaks

We reproduce a SWORN  STATEMENT by Dikabelo Selaledi, one of the whistleblowers presented to Forensics for Justice in Johannesburg, South Africa by the opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) to support their petitions of the outcome of the 2019 elections.

I, the undersigned, DIKABELO SELALEOI, date of birth XXXXX Botswana  passport number XXXXX state under oath as follows:·

I am an adult male with telephone numberand I live In Gaborone. I used to work for Southern District CounciL I was employed as an executive drlver and I was based at Kanye, at the council headquarters. I worked there until May 2013. I moved to Gaborone in 2014.

ln. 2014,  I  was interested to be a councillor  at Kanye. I went for the local election in 2014, under a BDP mandate,but I  lost. After I lost that election,I moved to Gaborone to do some construction work. When I got to Gaborone, I became friendly with BDP people,in particular  the Secretary General Mr. Mpho Balopi. I assisted Balopi by helping to register voters in 2018 and 2019 for the October 2019 general election. I would help where I was needed. I would often see President Masisi in the office and I would speak to him often before the elections. When I started working with Balopi and Masisi,I was promised by Masisi that if we (BDP) can win the elections he will see to it that I would become a Specially Nominated Councillor. This is a position which  would  be awarded by the  Minister   of Local Government. Of course, everyone knows that the Minister  takes his instructions from the President so I believed this promise by the President that I would get this position. This would be important for me as such a position carries a salary of about PULA 18 000 per month,  plus  various  allowances.. However,  after   the  elections,   which   the   BDP won, communication stopped from both Balopi and Masisi and I did not get my position. I tried to make an appointment to see Mr Balopi, but the appointment was always cancell.e.d at the last moment.

Before the elections, people were supposed to go to official voter’s registration centres. There were set times  for the registration, in person,. at these  centres. The I.E.C have the software on your computer to manage the voter registration. Somebody  who works at I.E.C lent me a lap-top computer and the password to log onto the I.E.C system.  Using this process I was able to register more than ten thousand voters in this way. I can even log on today if I had the password. However, I left the password on a piece of paper in Gaborone. I   would have been prepared to fetch  the  lap-top and demonstrate the process, except  the guy that lent me the lap-top, wanted  it back. He got the police to come to my house and get the lap-top back. If  I can borrow  the lap-top  again, I  will demonstrate how to log on to the laptop and create new voters.When   I    registered  these voters,   I    also  made  voters  registration  cards for  the  people  I registered. I heard someone saying there was an investigation, so I  burnt  most of the cards. This was about  two  weeks back.  I   burnt  them  in my yard in Mogoditshane. However, I somehow  forgot  to burn 35 of the cards. I have brought  those with me from  Botswana and have handed them over to Mr Paul O’Sullivan of Forensics for Justice.

To make  the voter’s registration  card,it is necessary to shade boxes for the entry of the form on the system. However, we did not run this through  any system, as I was putting the data into the system myself. If somebody tries to reconcile the 35 cards 1 have handed over, they will see there are no corresponding system entry sheets. I should mention that all the voter’s registration cards I made were for people to vote in more than one location. For example, I would make a card for Mr X to vote at Kanye and Gaborone. He would have already obtained his properly  issued card at Kanye. The second registration would be ‘suspended’ on the system and only un-suspended just before the election.This ‘un­-suspending’  on the system would not be done by me. It was done by the same person that lent me the lap-top. He was paid for doing this by me. The Secretary Mr balopi sent me about 10 e-wallets of PULA 5,000 each over a period of about 3 months or so before the elections. I  drew the cash from the ATM at Stanbic Bank,located at Sebele Mall in Goborone and also at the Stanblc ATM at Game City. After drawing the cash, I  would call him and he would come and collect it from me.

The I.E..C committee would have met to check the roll for a particular  constituency. As soon as they had ‘approved’  the roll, someone on the inside would then by-pass the system and release the duplicates onto the voter’s roll. This was also done by the person that lent me the I.E.C computer. I would then hold onto the duplicate (unsigned) voter’s registration cards until just before the day of  voting when  I would  give them  to  the  Team Leaders. After  voting  at their  home constituency, using the ‘normally’ obtained cards the people who would vote twice would be told by other  BDP organisers to go to the bus rank,to be taken to the next voting constituency.

When they got to the bus rank,there would be BDP coordinators/team leaders, who had also been paid. They would also be in possession of cash and would pay the voters each PUlA 50 or PULA 100 or something like that. This cash would only be paid when they got to the new voting  location.  If it was a soccer team  or a choir  that  was being  moved to a new voting location, there would be a lump sum payment made to the team or choir manager of a couple of thousand Pula, instead of paying the Individuals

When the people who would vote a second time got off the bus to vote, they would be given the new voting card and the cash. Sometimes they would also be given a phone. The phones were Chinese smart phones that the Secretary General brought from China. I understood that many of these phones were brought in. Such a phone would be given to a voter that was not trusted and he would be told to take a photo of his voting slip for BDP.

When  the  person  who had voted returned with  the phone  showing  the  proof  of voting picture, he would then be given the cash and told to keep the phone and he would hand in the second voter’s registration card and go back on the bus to where he came from. This thing with  the  phone  was only done with  voters not  trusted  by the  local organizer  and at his discretion. I was advised that 566 boxes of phones with 24 phones in each box were brought from China. Balopi was the one who told me this. He was bragging about lt.

I should mention that  when the voter’s  cards were made by me in this way, I did not sign them because they were not mine to sign. Because the voter was not present, he also could not sign it. Accordingly, when the cards  were handed out, the  voter  would have to sign it before  voting. The ones I have handed over are unsigned. This will prove what I am saying is true.  The handwriting on the cards was that of myself and my adult children.  My children could  testify  to  this  as the  process went  on  for  many  weeks  for  the  first  and second registration process.

For the first  registration process, I would have made 7 or 8 thousand  of these cards. The second registration process, I would have made 2 or 3 thousand. The ones that I burnt, which was a mixture of cards already used, which were signed,and unused cards that had not been signed. Many  of  the  voters  did  not  return  the  cards after  voting. I can mi>ntion that  in Gaborone North at Tsogang Ward, they closed the gate at 20:00 and they still had about 800 people in line. These would have been mostly second voters, with duplicate registration cards and already voted in their  own constituency, before going to Tsogang. They were allowed to vote because  they were  already in the  queue at 20:00.

In Gaborone South, approximately 4 000 duplicate votes took place. Apart from my activities, there were  other people  in other  parts of the country doing similar  things but I do not know If they  used  the same method as me. Lots of cash was needed for these duplicate voters. The cash was obtained from the Director of Intelligence Services. The cash was delivered  by an ‘agent’ from the  town of Palapye. He went  around  in a black Subaru car. I saw him handing out cash 3 or 4 times.

If I receive indemnity from prosecution I am prepared to testify to this matter in court. There were many people involved but 1  can state with certainty that  the following persons were also involved with the election fraud, but I do not know  what  system they  used.

1.           Pono Rakgari                     Jwaneng

2.           Jackson Rabatobane           Kanye

3.    Malebogo Batsile                Good Hope

I should  mention that  Balopi  has  given  me  a house,  located at XXXX. It  has  3 bedrooms. I value it at approximately PULA 400 000. I  suspect that  when this all comes out Balopi will try to take the house back.

PAYMENTS MADE TO THE  CHURCHES

I now  want  to talk  about  the monies  that  were paid to the  churches.  Where  I have said that monies were  paid  by me, it was out  of  the  cash that  I received from  the  D.I.S. agent from Palapye.

St. .lohn Church in Gaborone

I don’t  recall the Pastor’s name. As I  recall, I  gave him PULA 160,000. To my knowledge some of that money was used to buy instruments for a brass band, including drums.

Dutch Reform Church in Gaborone

I  also don’t recall the name of this Pastor. He was given a car. The  car was a Toyota Noah, seven seater.  It was white. Mr  Balopi was the one that arranged  the  car for him. Balopi bought ten of  these and gave one to the  Dutch Reform Church. The other 9 were also given to churches but I  do not know which ones.

St. Paul’s Church In Gaborone

I    don’t  know the Pastor’s name. I  gave him PULA 5,000  to buy choir uniforms. I sent him the money via a friend who took it from me for that purpose.

Elohi Churh in Gaborone 

I dont know the Pastor’s name. He got money for a 10 000 Litre Jo-Jo Tank. It was a green tank. He also got money to replace the whole roof including rafters. These monies were paid by Balopi.

Jacob’s  Ladder  Church In Kanye

The Pastor’s  name  is Radipetse.  The President, Masisi obtained  the  brass band instruments  from the  Botswana Defence Force and it was given to that  Church.

The Zion Christian Church In Lobatse

The Pastor’s name is Jacoba. He got PULA 20, 000 from me.

PAYMENTS TO SOCCER TEAMS

There is a Councilfor in Gaborone by the name of Thuso Khubamang. He and a guy called Umaga and myself went to meet with about 20 soccer team managers at Ledumang Primary School. We arranged a soccer tournament  with a first prize mini-bus. Second prize PULA 10,000.

All the other teams got PULA 5,000 each. The total cash was therefore  about PULA 175,000. In .order to participate, the soccer teams would have to bring their voter registration cards to prove they were registered to vote. After the tournament, the soccer teams were told they were expected to vote BDP. The monies for the soccer tournament prizes came from Balopi, who I believe got it from the Director of Intelligence Services.