Thread by @VictorBaatweng

PRESS RELEASE - From @SKIKhama

RE:​ALLEGATIONS MADE BY THE GOVERNMENT OF BOTSWANA (“THE STATE”) AGAINST FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF BOTSWANA LIEUTENANT GENERAL DR. SERETSE KHAMA IAN KHAMA (“DR. KHAMA”) IN RE: WELHEMINAH MPHOENG MASWABI vs THE STATE

1. We act for his Excellency the former President of the Republic of Botswana Lieutenant General Dr. Seretse Khama Ian Khama (“Dr. Khama”), hereinafter referred to as our Client.

2. A certain Jako Hubona, an investigator employed by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime, has deposed to an affidavit, filed in the Gaborone Division of the High Court...

...in a case in which the State opposes Welheminah Mphoeng Maswabi`s (“Ms Maswabi”) application for admission to bail pending prosecution.

Our Client, Dr. Ian Khama, has taken interest in the the said affidavit because it contains, on our instructions, terribly false allegations against Client, presented to Honourable Justice Christopher Gabanagae, a Judge of the High Court of this Republic.

Jako Hubona alleges in the said affidavit, inter alia, the following:

(i) that he has received a report alleging that on 9 June 2008, 3 Special Unit Accounts were created by Bank of Botswana, under the instruction of former President Khama, and the erstwhile Director General of the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Isaac Seabelo Kgosi.

(ii) on 20 July 2009, the funds from one of the alleged Bank of Botswana accounts was transferred to HSBC Bank in Hong Kong, the reference being to purchase intelligence equipment;

(iii) the alleged funds were transferred through various offshore accounts around the world, and in 2015 such funds were deposited into various South African bank accounts;

(iv) on 2 September 2019, an allegation was received to the effect that on 9 June 2008, Bank of Botswana, under the instruction of our Client and Mr Isaac Kgosi, created special STX Unit (foreign accounts);

v) that the creation of the said accounts was unlawful because they were created without the knowledge of the Accountant General; and,

(vi) that Ms Maswabi had access to the alleged Bank of Botswana Accounts.

4. Our Client will surely deal with the said allegations in appropriate detail, in the proper legal forum. However, the said false allegations are now in the public domain, and have formed a false narrative intended by Hubona, before Client could respond thereto.

Client hereby sets the record straight, in the interest of the public.

5. First, our Client instructs that at all times during his term in the Office of the President, he never issued any instruction to any officer of the Bank of Botswana for the creation of any account of whatever nature.

Client challenges Hubona and/or the Bank of Botswana to produce evidence of the alleged instruction from Office of the President to the Central Bank.

6. Conveniently, there is absolutely no attempt in Hubona`s affidavit to adduce any evidence of this alleged unlawful instruction in whatever form, yet this is the anchor allegation in Hubona`s affidavit.

This is because this allegation, on our instructions, is entirely false, fictitious and desperately malicious.

More perjury will be proved on the part of Hubona, when it is later demonstrated that, among many other falsities contained in the said affidavit, some South African bank accounts listed therein are pure fiction, they do not exist.

7. The first major and anchor premise of Hubona`s affidavit, the “instruction” is clearly false.

Therefore, the whole narrative he (Hubona) seeks to create in reference to our Client, we are instructed, cannot stand, it is fatally flawed, pure conjecture, and a miscalculated figment of his malicious imagination.

8. The allegation that our Client instructed Bank of Botswana, on 9 June 2008, to create the alleged bank accounts is therefore, on our instructions, tantamount to a classic case of the crime of perjury.

This criminal conduct by Hubona will be thoroughly investigated, and his prosecution and conviction procured to the fullest extent permitted by law.

9. Our Client will launch a thorough investigation of all the allegations made against him, in order to clear his name, offer the nation the truth, and expose this clandestine conspiracy by some Government institutions to assassinate his character.

It is very disrespectful to Batswana, for a Government institution such as the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime to place fabricated information before the Courts of Law in order to raise a false national security alarm simply to settle personal vendettas.

10. If it is true that the Bank of Botswana has absolutely zero credibility as a national reserve bank such that its officers would agree to participate in, and facilitate theft of public funds, at the instruction of any person at all, then our Client calls for a forensic audit.

11. Client wishes to make it plain that he has no offshore accounts and has maintained none during his presidency. Client has not received any money from any unlawfully created Bank of Botswana account, or offshore account.

Sincerely,

Ramalepa Attorneys Notaries & Conveyancers