Gaolathe must resign over CMB scandal

 His Honour the Vice President of the Republic of Botswana, Minister of Finance and Member of Parliament for Gaborone Bonnington South Rre Ndaba Nkosinathi Gaolathe is in the storm of the controversial Capital Management Botswana (Proprietary) Limited (CMB) scandal that has gripped the nation for close to a decade. The VP’s troubles are located in the Ruling delivered by Phuthego J on 22 September 2022 between him and The Liquidator of CMB. The Liquidator was seeking to recover over P 1 million paid to the VP. Following this Ruling whose effect was in favour of the Liquidator, the VP launched an appeal with the Court of Appeal (CoA) which he withdrew probably upon the realisation that it stood no prospects of success. Further to the withdrawal of the appeal, the VP may have feared something similar to what happened to Rre Carter Morupisi when he attempted to appeal the decision of a lower court. In arguing my case that the VP resigns, I will rely on the Phuthego J Ruling. 

I have always wondered why the VP’s matter was not fully investigated by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) given that the matter appears to exhibit the hallmarks of economic corruption and outright white collar crime. When this matter emerged, it was around the same period when the CMB scandal was fully ventilated in the media arising out of the company winning a controversial P 500 million tender from Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF). It is this tender that led to the investigation, trial and conviction of Morupisi together with the revelations about the Permanent Secretary to the President Mme Emma Peloetletse’s infamous Cape Town Jazz Festival trip. Given these circumstances, it beats logic why the VP’s matter was not investigated to establish whether or not he improperly benefitted from the ‘CMB gravy train.’ 

The VP’s troubles began when the Liquidator discovered during the liquidation process of CMB that a total amount of P 1 333,328.00 was paid to him and crucially that the payment according to the Liquidator in the Ruling, ‘was not supported by any proof of any justifiable basis, or supporting documents.’ The VP does not dispute the fact that he was indeed paid by CMB while he did not undertake any job on its behalf. It emerges he did some job for a company called Capital Management Africa (CMA) which company it would appear, was associated with CMB though he could not produce documentary proof to that effect owing to the fact that he could not locate such. Phuthego J held at paragraph 32 of his Ruling that ‘As the Applicant has not demonstrated at all that there was any connection between him and CMB that warranted CMB to pay him for any service he had rendered to it, costs against him have to be at a higher scale to compensate CMB for the legal costs it has unnecessarily incurred.’ 

To be fair to the VP, he has not been found guilty of corruption and/or money laundering by a competent judicial authority. But on face value, would a reasonable and objective person not form an opinion that the VP may have acted inappropriately by receiving payment from an entity he did not undertake any job on its behalf? And why wouldn’t an objective and reasonable person not conclude the controversial payment to the VP by CMB is akin to Morupisi’s case wherein money from the controversial CMB was cleaned in the value chain whose end result would be to ultimately pay for his confiscated land cruiser? These I believe, should be thought provoking questions capturing the minds of reasonable and objective persons. 

As I write, Morupisi is facing the prospects of returning to prison arising from corruption and money laundering convictions whose origins are from the CMB scandal. 

In the letter and spirit of ethical and moral behaviour, this case does not bode well for the VP given the political offices he currently holds as alluded to in the opening paragraph. It is undesirable, notwithstanding that he has not been found guilty by a competent judicial authority, for him to hold those offices particularly that the mantra of a New Botswana is a buzzword. The New Botswana I want to believe, espouses leadership with unquestionable moral and ethical conduct. The offices the VP holds do not require any hint of unethical and immoral conduct or behaviour of the holder. It is a pity that in Botswana, those with aspirations to hold political office are not subjected to grilling vetting processes where if this was the case, the VP would have not been appointed a Minister or VP given the CMB scandal. Put differently, the standard required for one to become a VP or Minister is embarrassingly too low or non-existent. Anyone comes in with their baggage whatever that is and are able to access big political and corporate offices. 

It is my submission that given the furore around the CMB at the time the VP chose to have a commercial relationship with it, someone of his standing in society would have foreseen the deleterious consequences of doing so by staying very far from it. It was in my view, a very costly error of judgement to which he must answer hard and difficult questions. While paying the money should be applauded, it is not enough to let the matter rest. 

The DCEC must investigate the matter the same way it investigated Morupisi in order to establish the truth about the payment the VP received from CMB. There is every reason to suspect the payment was akin to ‘riding on the CMB gravy train’ that was running at full throttle at the time. It will be a tragedy of epic proportions to investigate others and leave others scot free while the source of established wrongdoing or suspicion is from the same source. 

In the circumstances that the VP controversially received payment from CMB under mysterious circumstances, it is reasonable to demand that he resigns from political positions he holds. Former Ministers in the persons of Ndelu Seretse, Peter Mmusi and Daniel Kwelagobe resigned their positions when their questionable conduct over different matters emerged. I am prepared to be persuaded otherwise as always. Judge for Yourself!