{"id":7474,"date":"2022-05-24T10:59:53","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T10:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance"},"modified":"2022-05-24T14:20:10","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T14:20:10","slug":"ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance","title":{"rendered":"Ex-diplomat commits 250 years toward debt-clearance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>A former diplomat who owes government of Botswana around P600,000 has committed to service the debt by paying P200 every month.<\/b><\/p>\n

This means it will take the latter 250 years (10 generations) to settle the debt. The ex-diplomat (name undisclosed) is currently unemployed.<\/p>\n

He was stationed in New York at the time and accumulated the debt through a telephone bill, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n

Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recently, Foreign Affairs ministry\u2019s permanent secretary (PS), Gladys Mokhawa revealed that the diplomat incurred the costs through the mobile data that was not switched off.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came here in Botswana unaware that the mobile data was on and he kept on calling and the bill ended up reaching around P600,000,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mokhawa also disclosed that even after taking all the money from his benefits when he left the job, the diplomat was still far from settling the debt.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is currently unemployed and he has promised to pay P200 every month. He has even asked to be reemployed so that he could settle this debt,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mokhawa said they will take the matter back to court because they do not agree with the P200 debt service he has committed to.<\/p>\n

The PS also indicated the ex-diplomat initially hid the debt from the ministry and decided to settle the debt at the telephone company using government money.<\/p>\n

PAC member, Pono Moatlhodi asked why the irregularity was not discovered while the diplomat was still on duty and why the amount was not deducted from his salary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe discovered this while he was still on duty. After realising that he has incurred these costs, he paid the bill using government money and gave us a fake receipt which did not reflect the actual amount. It was only realised after an audit that he used government money to settle his debt. He concealed the actual amount and this was like fraud. After an investigation was conducted there was a hearing and in the middle of this he resigned,\u201d she further disclosed.<\/p>\n

Moatlhodi said he was baffled by this kind of fraud which was not discovered in time by the ministry.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are very wrong. I don\u2019t want to hide behind the figure because this is very unprofessional of you,\u201d Moatlhodi put it to the PS.<\/p>\n

Mokhawa explained that a criminal case was not instituted because when their investigations were done at the time they did not come to the conclusion the case was fraud.<\/p>\n

For his part, PAC acting chairperson, Mephato Reatile said he was concerned about the P200 per month repayment plan because even the former diplomat knows he can never settle this debt in his lifetime.<\/p>\n

Reatile said there is nothing the ministry can do now to speed up the recovery of the amount owed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have converted a criminal case into a civil matter, now you are going to court for the P200 commitment made by the former diplomat. You have watered it down. You are spending money for nothing,\u201d Reatile told Mokhawa.<\/p>\n

Reatile said the ministry should be aware that it will take the former diplomat generations to settle the debt.<\/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 former diplomat who owes government of Botswana around P600,000 has committed to service the debt by paying P200 every month. This means it will take the latter 250 years (10 generations) to settle the debt. The ex-diplomat (name undisclosed) is currently unemployed. He was stationed in New York at the time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":7473,"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-7474","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":"\nEx-diplomat commits 250 years toward debt-clearance - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A former diplomat who owes government of Botswana around P600,000 has committed to service the debt by paying P200 ev ...\" \/>\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\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ex-diplomat commits 250 years toward debt-clearance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A former diplomat who owes government of Botswana around P600,000 has committed to service the debt by paying P200 ev ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance\" \/>\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=\"2022-05-24T10:59:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-24T14:20:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/05\/img-628ce97f0831a.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"389\" \/>\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\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ex-diplomat commits 250 years toward debt-clearance\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-24T10:59:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-24T14:20:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance\"},\"wordCount\":544,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/05\/img-628ce97f0831a.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\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance\",\"name\":\"Ex-diplomat commits 250 years toward debt-clearance - Botswana\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/05\/img-628ce97f0831a.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-24T10:59:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-24T14:20:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"A former diplomat who owes government of Botswana around P600,000 has committed to service the debt by paying P200 ev ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/05\/img-628ce97f0831a.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/05\/img-628ce97f0831a.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":389,\"caption\":\"Ex-diplomat commits 250 years toward debt-clearance\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ex-diplomat commits 250 years toward debt-clearance\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/\",\"name\":\"Botswana\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ex-diplomat commits 250 years toward debt-clearance - Botswana","description":"A former diplomat who owes government of Botswana around P600,000 has committed to service the debt by paying P200 ev ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ex-diplomat commits 250 years toward debt-clearance","og_description":"A former diplomat who owes government of Botswana around P600,000 has committed to service the debt by paying P200 ev ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance","og_site_name":"Botswana","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-05-24T10:59:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-05-24T14:20:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":389,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/05\/img-628ce97f0831a.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Ex-diplomat commits 250 years toward debt-clearance","datePublished":"2022-05-24T10:59:53+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-24T14:20:10+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance"},"wordCount":544,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/05\/img-628ce97f0831a.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\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance","name":"Ex-diplomat commits 250 years toward debt-clearance - Botswana","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/05\/img-628ce97f0831a.jpg","datePublished":"2022-05-24T10:59:53+00:00","dateModified":"2022-05-24T14:20:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"A former diplomat who owes government of Botswana around P600,000 has committed to service the debt by paying P200 ev ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/05\/img-628ce97f0831a.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/05\/img-628ce97f0831a.jpg","width":800,"height":389,"caption":"Ex-diplomat commits 250 years toward debt-clearance"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/ex-diplomat-commits-250-years-toward-debt-clearance#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ex-diplomat commits 250 years toward debt-clearance"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/","name":"Botswana","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}