SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT REFUSES COOPERATION IN BOTSWANA CASE

Adv. Gerrie Nel, Head of AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit, today during a live broadcast from Botswana announced the latest developments in the case against Welheminah Mphoeng Maswabi, a former member of the country’s intelligence service, to the public.

AfriForum was appointed by Botswana’s government to support them in obtaining mutual legal assistance from the South African government seeing as some of Maswabi’s activities apparently involves South Africa.

Nel today made an application for the preliminary withdrawal of the case even though the defence objected against it. The case was postponed until 14 September 2021 when the application will be argued comprehensively. The magistrate hearing the case wasn’t available today. Nel said the aim is to gather all the necessary facts and then make a recommendation regarding prosecution.

Maswabi was an agent of Botswana’s Directorate of Intelligence Services and is being prosecuted on a charge that she maintained a lifestyle above her ability. Various reports of media publications in the country further make allegations against Maswabi that she financed terrorism by moving money that can be linked to Isaac Kgosi, the former spy chief in Botswana.

Nel once again today referred to the South African government’s failure to give its cooperation in the matter. According to Nel, it seems as though the South African government is trying to protect certain people. He also emphasised that the case was not abandoned, but that all the necessary evidence and information must first be obtained before Maswabi’s prosecution can again be instituted.

Bridgette Motsepe-Radebe, the wife of former minister Jeff Radebe and sister-in-law of pres. Cyril Ramaphosa, is in the media being accused that she, together with Maswabi, was a fellow signatory of accounts worth billions of pula.