- Top brass allegedly brought sangoma to DCEC headquarters
- DCEC probes officers caught on CCTV camera performing ritual
GAZETTE REPORTER
The Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) has confirmed that it is investigating reports involving some of its top directors caught on surveillance cameras performing rituals with a sangoma in offices at the headquarters of the corruption-busting agency in Gaborone a week ago.
Responding on behalf of Acting Director General, Public Relations Officer Otsepeng Otladisang said it was the first time that the agency had encountered such an incident and procedure regarding how to go about it was yet to be determined.
Rituals using soil
Insiders say security guards there saw four employees of DCEC and a fifth person whom they believed to be a sangoma performing rituals using soil collected from the premises before heading to a senior manager’s office to conclude a “ceremonial cleansing”.
Insiders say whilst the events were captured on CCTV cameras at approximately 2am, the footage was subsequently removed from the DCEC central server for “safe keeping” elsewhere.
Reliable sources say before the footage was removed, several DCEC personnel were allegedly called to view it and to confirm the identities of the three women in it. It is said this resulted in the allegations surfacing throughout the organisation.
While most DCEC staffers were reportedly stunned by the development, a powerful manager (names known to this publication) involved is going about work unabashed in the midst of questions being raised about the organisation’s policy on matters of use of muti and traditional rituals in the workplace.
Otlaadisang told this publication: “We are aware of the rumours and are still looking into investigating to establish their legitimacy.”
Use of muti in the workplace
“At the point, we are unable to reveal any information and action to be taken as the issue is internal and it is the Directorate’s first time to encounter this kind of situation.”
Issues of use of muti in the workplace have risen within law enforcement agencies before. In a recent letter to President Mokgweetsi Masisi, the head of the judiciary, Chief Justice Terence Rannowane, also made reference to traditional rituals and muti being used in internal power struggles.
Meanwhile, DCEC has been riven by fractions since the suspension of the Director General Tymon Katlholo and subsequent appointment of the organisation’s Head of Intelligence, Tshepo Pilane, as Acting Director General.
DCEC insiders say a state of chaos has engulfed the organisation as officers seek to align themselves with two centres of power who are being touted as Katlholo’s successors.
One of the two was allegedly among the three who arrived in the company of a sangoma at DCEC headquarters in the dead of night last week.