Trouble in Botswana

A brigadier in the Botswana Defence Force is at the center of a firestorm of controversy. The High Court has halted the proceedings of a board of inquiry looking into allegations he had an adulterous affair with the wife of a soldier. Some phone record seem to have gone missing. Then there's the question of some spying equipment that went missing. The Monitor reports:

Botswana Defence Force (BDF) Chief of Staff, Peter Magosi who last year thwarted investigations against himself by the army for some missing spying equipment, has his army career hanging by the thread, this time over allegations of having sex with a woman married to a fellow soldier, against the BDF code of conduct. 

Those in the know say with this latest charge on his head, the brigadier’s expulsion from the army is imminent, especially after the woman’s confessions, although Magosi’s lawyers have been arguing that their client was set up. 

Observers say top government officials may have finally closed in on the army general who last year caused security embarrassment when top security secrets were laid bare in the local media when the army general was being investigated for some missing spy equipment. The investigations left government top brass with egg on the face as the names of the then Permanent Secretary to the President, Eric Molale, now Minister of Presidential Affairs, as well as the director general of the Directorate on Security and Intelligence Services (DIS), 

Isaac Kgosi, the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) Commander, Gaolatlhe Galebotswe, and President Ian Khama, were all mentioned with regard to the missing spy equipment. The matter even reached the courts before the BDF negotiated an out of court settlement. 

In the latest episode a private lodged charges against the brigadier after his wife confessed to a night of sex romp with the general at his farm, and now the BDF board was about to hand down their findings on the matter, when the general postponed the process with an urgent court order requesting for additional documents he hopes could set him free.

Stay tuned.