Fight for the soul of DIS

As tensions rise within the Directorate of Intelligence Services (DIS), top spies are allegedly increasingly butting their heads.

This week the security clouds were heavily pregnant with allegations that DIS Director General Peter Magosi has been suspended something that was not denied nor confirmed.

Efforts to get confirmation from Office of the President and DIS were futile as none pick their phones but highly placed sources have revealed that this is part power struggling within the spy unit.

Sources at the Office of the President have intimated that President Mokgweetsi Masisi has not suspended Magosi.

“There is no way President Masisi can suspend or fire Magosi now because he has been loyal to him and helped him in some critical issues,” revealed a highly placed source at the government enclave.

At the crust of the propaganda on the suspension of Magosi is said to be infighting mainly on who is supposed to perform which duties at the spy agency.

When he took over at DIS, Magosi the former Botswana Defence Force (BDF) ground forces command failed to unite the old and the new recruits at the spy agency.

As the dust settled after he was appointed as the Director General, a new drama begun between him and the old officers who felt that they were been undermined and some purged.

Information gathered by this publication has shown that factional jockeying is now happening more conspicuously than ever within the DIS than ever before.

Some senior DIS officials have accused Magosi of being involved more into operations which are supposed to be handled by his subordinates instead of focusing on administration side of things.

The latest fuel for infighting is how the spy unit handled the case of Welhemia Maswabi codenamed Butterfly who has been accused of money laundering and financing terrorism. The loopholes in the charges is said to have angered some senior DIS bosses who felt that it has exposed the fault lines within the organization.

Some within the organization especially those who worked with Maswabi during the era of Isaac Kgosi wanted the matter to have been dealt with internally in order to safeguard the organization.

“Our fear was that this case is going to expose the workings of the intelligence unit some which are very highly confidential because Maswabi knows a lot, we should have rehabilitated her,” revealed a worried spy agent.

Interference in tender awarding

The clash, at its core, was—and continues to be the interference of the spy unit on the awarding of high capital tenders.

This is said to not have sat well with some within the DIS as they felt that they were now stepping on the mandate of Directorate of Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC).

The DIS is currently facing a P60 million lawsuit from China Jiangsu after they blacklisted them saying they are involved in massive corruption and threat to national security.

The company lost multibillion tenders due to the letter by DIS including the P1.5 billion Maun Water Supply and Sanitation Project and P419 million Moshupa Hospital project.

Both Justices Dube and Khan dismissed the DIS correspondence saying it is a mere correspondence from one government ministry to another.