{"id":3672,"date":"2022-03-09T21:09:39","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T21:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/embarrassment-for-debswana-as-unpaid-spy-takes-witness-stand"},"modified":"2022-03-09T22:41:54","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T22:41:54","slug":"embarrassment-for-debswana-as-unpaid-spy-takes-witness-stand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/embarrassment-for-debswana-as-unpaid-spy-takes-witness-stand","title":{"rendered":"Embarrassment for Debswana as \u2018unpaid spy\u2019 takes witness stand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>A decision by Debswana to allow its spying shenanigans to be washed in public may leave an indelible dent on the reputation of the diamond mining company which the government is an equal partner.<\/p>\n

Thus far the court has heard sordid details about how Debswana often engages in shady conduct and how the blue chip parastatal often operates in Hollywood-style smokes and shadows in its engagement of external clients.<\/p>\n

Accounts of a long-time client of Debswana\u2019s, Mompoloki Motshidi of Infotrac \u2013 a security consultancy company \u2013 are laying this bare in its legal action against Debswana for an unpaid debt amounting to P110 million for spying work.<\/p>\n

More revelations are expected in court tomorrow (Thursday) as Motshidi continues with his thrill-a-minute narration of his company\u2019s working relationship with Debswana.<\/p>\n

By their nature, operations of espionage are covert and should never reach the public. But when the settlement deal failed, Debswana decided to challenge the alleged debt. A feather in the cap of Motshidi and Infotrac was added by former PSP Carter Morupusi, who confirmed knowledge of the issue this debt from the time he was chairman or deputy chairman of the Board of Debswana.<\/p>\n

Whereupon John Carr-Hartley of Armtrongs Attorneys (for Debswana) asked Morupisi why he was not alarmed by the figure as a Debswana board member knowing that any procurement of over P100 million can only be authorised by the board. Morupusi replied that although he was aware of his fiduciary duty as Debswana board member, he never knew if the debt in question was a lump sum or debt that had accrued over time.<\/p>\n

When Carr-Hartley wanted to know why Morupisi did not report the matter to the board, Morupisi replied it was that it was a management issue and he was not involved in management at the parastatal. \u201cIf there was anything wrong, I would have expected (then MD of Debswana Albert) Milton to raise it during their call,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that the complications may have been caused by the kind of services rendered by Infotrac, which would naturally be restricted to people responsible for it. When he discussed it with Milton, the MD indicated that he was travelling but promised to settle the matter as soon as he got back.<\/p>\n

The court also heard that as part of its scope of work, Infotrac reached high to lobby and contacted President Mokgweetsi Masisi (then vice president) through Albert Milton and the late former governor of Bank of Botswana Linah Mohohlo to support Milton for appointment.<\/p>\n

Motshidi told the court that as part of settling the debt, at some point Debswana had offered P10 million but only P2 million was readily available. He rejected due to \u201cuncertainty\u201d of the payment terms. Motshidi said other payment options proposed by Debswana included giving future jobs to Infotrac.<\/p>\n

Motshidi also told court that Infotrac had a history of undertaking assignment from Debswana without any written contract and the Debswana always paid without fail or any trouble. He attributed the processes to the sensitivity of the jobs he was doing for Debswana, which included providing spying equipment and gathering intelligence information on some company employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever they wanted my services, they would either send me a WhatsApp message, email or inform me directly and I would give them the figure for the job before being given the go-ahead to do the job,\u201d he said. \u201cI was comfortable with the agreement as Debswana always paid and we had built trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. A decision by Debswana to allow its spying shenanigans to be washed in public may leave an indelible dent on the reputation of the diamond mining company which the government is an equal partner. Thus far the court has heard sordid details about how Debswana often engages in shady conduct and how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":3671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8,12,16],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-3672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nEmbarrassment for Debswana as \u2018unpaid spy\u2019 takes witness stand - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A decision by Debswana to allow its spying shenanigans to be washed in public may leave an indelible dent on the reputat ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/embarrassment-for-debswana-as-unpaid-spy-takes-witness-stand\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Embarrassment for Debswana as \u2018unpaid spy\u2019 takes witness stand\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A decision by Debswana to allow its spying shenanigans to be washed in public may leave an indelible dent on the reputat ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/embarrassment-for-debswana-as-unpaid-spy-takes-witness-stand\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-09T21:09:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-09T22:41:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/03\/img-62292d1b21bea.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1170\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/embarrassment-for-debswana-as-unpaid-spy-takes-witness-stand#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/embarrassment-for-debswana-as-unpaid-spy-takes-witness-stand\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Embarrassment for Debswana as \u2018unpaid spy\u2019 takes witness stand\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-09T21:09:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-09T22:41:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/embarrassment-for-debswana-as-unpaid-spy-takes-witness-stand\"},\"wordCount\":600,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/embarrassment-for-debswana-as-unpaid-spy-takes-witness-stand#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/03\/img-62292d1b21bea.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/embarrassment-for-debswana-as-unpaid-spy-takes-witness-stand#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/embarrassment-for-debswana-as-unpaid-spy-takes-witness-stand\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/embarrassment-for-debswana-as-unpaid-spy-takes-witness-stand\",\"name\":\"Embarrassment for Debswana as \u2018unpaid spy\u2019 takes witness stand - 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