Was DIS pistol used in murder?

• Ex DIS agent used service pistol to commit crime -claim
• ‘Killer was not in possession of DIS property, let alone any firearm’

PHILLIMON MMESO

editors@thepatriot.co.bw

The recent murder suicide involving two attorneys which left the legal fraternity reeling in shock is said to have exposed lapses within the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services.

Steve Rankwane who was a senior attorney at Armstrong Attorneys recently shot dead Keakantse Chatapiwa who was a senior attorney at Bookbinder Business Law before turning the firearm on himself. Sources within the security cluster have intimated that Rankwane is suspected to have used a service pistol given to him whilst still working for the DIS and didn’t retire when he resigned from the spy agency. This is said to have worried the DIS top brass as they now suspect that some of the resigned and retired officers might still be in possession of service firearms.

DIS Director of Public Relations Edward Robert confirmed that Rankwane is a former employee of the DIS but denied that he might have used their firearm to commit murder. “The late Steve Rankwane is indeed a former employee of the Directorate. The circumstances leading to both he and Ms. Chatapiwa Keakantse’s passing are highly regrettable. The Directorate passes its sincerest condolences to both families. It should be noted that Mr. Rankwane left the Directorate in 2019 and was thus not in possession of Department issued property let alone any firearm,” he said.

Though the DIS is denying that Rankwane was in possession of the DIS firearm sources within the agency have revealed that investigations have been instituted to determine how he got to be in possession of the firearm and if there are no former members who are still in possession of the agency’s property. “The main challenge is that there has never been a proper handover from former DIS Director General Isaac Kgosi to his successor Peter Magosi, and another challenge is that no inventory has ever been done,” revealed the source.

Magosi has in the past complained that when he took over from his predecessor there was no inventory for weapons and other equipment procured by DIS thus making it difficult to know how many they have and if all are in the armoury.