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.