DIS intercepts ‘SA child traffickers’

The Lobatse High Court will end of this month make a ruling in a highly charged child trafficking case involving a South African couple and the Directorate of Intelligence Services (DIS).The parties appeared before Justice Tebogo Tau this week Tuesday after an urgent application by the spy agency, represented by Tshiamo Motsumi of Mack Bahuma Attorneys.

Pepsi Thuto and Tawana Bobodhla of Chibanda Makgalemele and Company represent the couple. The case was however swiftly taken to the chamber - meaning that it could not be heard in an open court. However, this paper can reveal that the battle dates back from 2009.

In a letter passed on to the Office of the President last week, the adopted couple* narrates their ordeal, which they say began after adopting a Motswana child in 2009. “About nine months later, the birth mother, who was telling everyone that the ‘White Lady’ was looking after her baby, decided to appeal the adoption because she did not tell her family that she had signed the adoption forms,” reads the letter in part.

However the adopted mother won the appeal, according to the letter seen by Botswana Guardian. It is alleged that the biological mother took the matter to the High Court but lost on grounds that she has approved the 2009 adoption.

It is not clear how the DIS became involved in the case, but the letter indicates that the spy agency has been following the couple and demanding that the child be handed over to the mother because it had been stolen. Plans to relocate to South Africa were thwarted this week as the investigations intensified. The child is in safe custody in one of the local homes.

Botswana Guardian has been informed that the adopted mother has since returned to South Africa where she has landed a new job. In an interview with this paper, her husband stated that the DIS agents attacked them last Friday night in Gaborone and took the child away. “All we want is for our child to be brought back to us because we are not child traffickers,” he said.

DIS director general, Isaac Kgosi said the case was before the court and could not be discussed with the media, a point reiterated bygGovernment spokesperson Jeff Ramsay. He said he was aware that the Office of the President was supposed to have received a letter from the couple. He however said it had not yet been forwarded to his office.

There is no specific law in Botswana that prohibits child trafficking, but the Penal Code of 1998 prohibits some forms of trafficking. The stringent penalties prescribed for offenses under these sections range from seven to 10 years’ imprisonment.

Sections 57 and 114 of the 2009 Children’s Act prohibit child prostitution and child trafficking, respectively; Section 57 prescribes penalties of two to five years’ imprisonment for facilitation or coercion of children into prostitution, while Section 114 prescribes penalties of five to 15 years’ imprisonment for child trafficking. Names of adopted parents and biological mother withheld to protect the identity of the child.