Magosi, DIS top brass slapped with contempt charges

The officers, Pulane Kgoadi, Kuda Malikongwa, Paul Setlhabi, Sebuweng Mukani, and Mpho Molokwane, on Friday filed papers at the Lobatse High Court seeking to have Magosi and 15 of his deputies charged with contempt of Justice Boipuso Makhwe’s December 2024 judgment. In that ruling, Justice Makhwe found that the Permanent Secretary to the President (PSP), Emma Peloetletse, had acted unlawfully by ordering investigations into DIS employees. The court held that under the Intelligence and Security Service Act (ISSA), only the DIS Director-General or the President, in cases of conflict, has the authority to institute such probes.

These are not ordinary times. Yet, history reminds us that this nation has navigated difficult waters before and did so by clinging firmly to the principles of prudence and macroeconomic stability. From independence in 1966, Botswana chose a path few resource-rich countries managed to sustain.

Diamond revenues were not treated as windfalls for reckless expansion, but as capital to be managed with caution. The establishment of fiscal rules,…