19 Jun 2017

This is to reassure the public that the news item titled "DCEC foils Masisi, DISS black operation against Butale" written by Tefo Pheage, which appeared in the Botswana Gazette newspaper of Wednesday 14th June, 2017, comprises false statements and concoctions, which have no basis in fact.

It is alleged in the news item that a Directorate on Intelligence and Security (DIS) operatives were involved in a plot to have Assistant Minister Biggie Butale arrested for two days pending investigations into a fabricated bribery incident in order to destroy his political ambitions and benefit his “political nemesis”. The paper further quotes unidentified sources claiming that DCEC officers resisted pressure from certain “elders” and several calls made to them by DIS operatives, to arrest Hon. Butale.

These are outrageous allegations which render this article a patently false report spread with ulterior motives. It is quite clear from a reading of this article that the writer and some irresponsible and ill-motivated elements, are on a smear campaign against   the Vice President, Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi.

The DIS strongly refutes the contents of this article which do not depict a correct picture of the conduct of business in the Directorate. The contents of this article are nothing but a perpetuation of falsehoods, myths and stereotypes about the DIS intended to incite the public against the organization and its employees.

The DIS is manned by professionals guided by the Intelligence and Security Service Act, 2007. Section 5(2) of the Act clearly provides that in performing its functions, “no act shall be performed that could give rise to any reasonable suspicion that the Directorate is concerned in furthering, protecting or undermining the interests of any particular section of the population or of any political party or other organization in Botswana”. In all allegations to the contrary, which have been levelled against the Directorate, there has never been any evidence proffered to substantiate the claims.

Batswana should rest assured that the DIS remains resolutely focussed on its mandate of safeguarding Botswana and all its people from threats to our national security and interests, working with other security and law enforcement organs.

The DCEC also wishes to state that the article is not only false, malicious but misleading. In a questionnaire that was sent to the DCEC by the same Gazette newspaper, the DCEC stated categorically that it does not have such a case and does not deal with impersonation. I

It is shocking to learn that even after this clarification, the paper went ahead and published such false allegations. Such allegations will however not deter the DCEC from carrying out its duty of fighting corruption. BGCIS