The Permanent Secretary to the President (PSP), Emma Peloetletse’s hand has been caught in spy wars controversy following serious allegations from two suspended senior officers of the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) who accuse her of mishandling sensitive intelligence information, which they claim has jeopardized their interests and the safety of their sources. In court documents filed before the High Court, Director of Legal Affairs Pulane Kgoadi and Principal Intelligence Officer Paul Setlhabi assert that they were acting under specific directives from President Mokgweetsi Masisi when they conducted investigations that led to the submission of crucial findings to Peloetletse. Among the evidence presented was an audio recording of an interview with a whistleblower, which they indicated was meant for the President’s consideration.
The suspended officers further claimed that there was a pattern of direct communication between themselves, Peloetletse, and President Masisi, conducted without the knowledge of DIS Director General, Peter Magosi. This communication reportedly included phone calls and text messages that covered matters of national security.
The duo is on record saying their ordeal resulted from leaked information to their boss, Magosi. Peloetletse, they say had been supplied with both documentary and audio material on the investigations the Plaintiffs “For the avoidance of doubt the handing of the information to the Director General happened in her office at the Office of The President in the Plaintiffs’ presence. The Permanent Secretary to the President had summoned the Plaintiffs to her office and stated that she wanted to reconcile them with the Director General,” reads the duo’s papers.
Peloetletse they said claimed to be playing the role of an arbitrator, knowing very well that she was planning to share the details with Magosi. “In particular the Permanent Secretary to the President provided the Director General with a memory stick (thumb drive) containing recordings of an interview the Plaintiffs (Kgoadi and Setlhabi) had had with a whistleblower/ informant. In the recording the Director General was fingered for possible wrongdoing,” said Kgoadi and Setlhabi.
Following that, Kgoadi and Setlhabi said they started facing a streak of accusations and arrests sanctioned by Magosi. They said as such whilst the presidential investigations aforesaid constituted the primary reason for the unlawful arrests, detentions, searches and seizures, secondary reasons, existed that had made them undesirable elements at DIS. Kgoadi and Setlhabi said the arrests, detentions, searches and seizures were further unlawful because same were actuated by unlawful and improper motives on the part of DIS.
They said the directorate acted mala fide in that it used the arrests and detentions and searches to tarnish their credibility and to frustrate and discredit them for covert work they had been specifically assigned by the President of Botswana, Dr. Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi (Hereinafter, The President) which investigations revealed possible complicity by DIS Director General Magosi in wrongdoing.
In particular, prior to the arrests, Kgoadi and Setlhabi said they had been jointly assigned by the President Dr. Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi, with an investigation. “The instruction was issued to the Plaintiffs personally by His Excellency The President and had to do with allegations of wrongdoing wherein the name of the Director General of the 2nd Defendant’s (DIS) had been specifically mentioned,” they said. They continued: “The Permanent Secretary to the President, Ms. Emma Peloetletse, was privy to this covert assignment and the Plaintiffs reported back on the assignment directly to the President or through her.”
On another matter, Kgoadi and Setlhabi said they, together with Magosi know a person operating the facebook pseudo account, France Museveni tormenting high profile figures.
“The individual specializes in whipping up false and scandalous information about people the Director General dislikes or wants to destroy reputationally,” they said.
They added that “Whilst exact amounts are unknown to the Plaintiffs, France Museveni, has been paid hundreds of thousands of Pula in taxpayer money by the Second Defendant (DIS) Director General, in clear abuse of office,” they said.
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