- The Receiver says Khama is not telling the truth that the state has starved Kgosi’s cattle to death
- Khama says he will compensate Kgosi with Moshupa cattle gifts
TEFO PHEAGE
Statements by former president Ian Khama that the state has killed some of Isaac Kgosi’s cattle are false, The Botswana Gazette has established.
This is the conclusion of the head of the Office of the Receiver in the Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security, Bafi Nlanda, whose purpose is to take over management of property restrained by the courts on suspicion that the property consists of proceeds of crime.
The Receiver, who is the custodian of Kgosi’s 262 cattle, says he is aware of utterances by Khama that the state has ruined Kgosi’s cattlepost. “I do not know which cattle he was or they were talking about because as far as I am concerned, all the cattle we have seized are in good shape,” Nlanda states matter-of-factly.
“Infact, the cattle are increasing in number as some gave birth recently. It is important to note that we only seized the cattle which were mentioned in the court order. They consist of 200 heifers, 24 Simmental, 36 Brahman white (pure breed), one Brahman bull and one Simmental bull.”
He said these are the only ones under the custody of the state and the only ones that the state can account for.
Lobatse High Court Judge Tebogo Tau last month issued an order for the seizure of Kgosi’s properties, including his farm, money, his Phakalane home and motor vehicles. The court order entailed the Receiver immediately taking full control and custody of the specified properties pending investigations and/or institution and finalisation of proceedings for a civil penalty order and a civil forfeiture order.
But Khama attacked the Office of the Receiver for allegedly mismanaging Kgosi’s assets last week, saying some of Kgosi’s cattle in its custody had died after being starved for two weeks. “I have since made an undertaking that I will replace and compensate Kgosi for the loss with the cattle gifts I received from Moshupa,” the controversial former president said.
He charged that the state was doing this to Kgosi’s cattle while their owner was outside the country for medical attention. “They are denying that Kgosi is in Malaysia,” he said at a rally of his Botswana Patriotic Front. “But take it from me, he is.”
The Office of the Receiver was created in September last year following introduction of the Proceeds and Instruments of Crime Act (PICA) which came into effect in January 2015 and is responsible for preserving the value of confiscated property or money in respect of an order made under this law.
Within a short period of time, the office has recovered millions in both cash and value of impounded movable and immovable assets deemed by the courts to be gains or proceeds of crime.
the former head of the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Service, Issac Kgosi, is in Malaysia purportedly for medical attention while his lawyers fight a warrant of arrest issued against him. The case continues and is due today where Kgosi has been instructed to bring evidence of his travel and the dates on which he travelled.