Prosecutor says Gum's lawyers delaying case

The state prosecutor in a corruption case against transport Company - IRB Transport - owned by Member of Parliament for Tati East, Moyo Guma, has accused the defence lawyers of delaying the completion of the investigations.

Appearing before Village Chief Magistrate, Linah Oahile-Mokibe on Friday, Letswalo Mpho said they wrote a notice order to the lawyers on 10th September so that they could furnish documents to Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), to conclude its investigations against the company.

“The same day the first respondents through their lawyers responded promising to submit documents on the 25th September and unfortunately as we speak today that order has not been complied with,” he said. According to Mpho they wanted the company to provide financial statements, balance sheets, shareholder dividends and fixed assets for the years 2008 to 2015.

In the last court appearance, the lawyers and DPP agreed that DCEC be allowed to carry out investigations. “As far as this case is concerned the first respondent is frustrating the investigations in this matter,” explained Mpho. Responding to the accusations, IRB Transport lawyers, Moses Kadye said the DCEC has now spread its investigations wider from the initial application. “The application into this matter was to look into the bank accounts of 2014.

What will those financial statements of 2008 to 2015 have to do with this case? The notice has spread to other companies which have nothing to do with this case and the bank accounts. When the accounts were frozen the money was not there. Witnesses and records are there,” said Kadye. His counterpart, Doctor Pusoentsi, who is representing Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Thapelo Olopeng as the second respondent lashed out at the DCEC saying they are trying to get a fish in a dry dam. “We are shocked at what the DCEC is doing. The goal posts have now changed,” he said. He told the magistrate that if the DPP wants to charge other companies owned by his clients they should do so on a separate matter but not seek information from them as the third party.

“It is legally wrong for me and the DPP to talk about the company that is not involved in this matter. If they want to charge those companies they should write to them and explain what they want from them. They have lost it and (are now) investigating something which is outside this matter,” he said adding that the DPP is harassing his client.

In his affidavit submitted to Oahile-Mokibe on July 13 2015, Standard Chartered Bank Chief Executive Officer Moatlhodi Lekaukau explained that on Thursday May 28 2015, the bank received a letter from the Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA) advising that the agency has reasonable grounds to suspect that the account belonging to Guma’s company was involved in a financial offence.

“The account belonging to the 1st respondent (IRB Transport) and held with the 3rd Respondent (Standard Chartered Bank) Game City mall branch was involved in the commission of a financial offence as defined under the Financial Intelligence Act [Cap 08:07] (“FIA Act”), and thereby directing the bank to halt and/or not to proceed with any debit transaction relating to the account,” reads the CEO’s affidavit.

The amount of over P25 million was found in the company’s account. In 2013, Moyo Guma signed a consultancy agreement with Chinese multinational Sinohydro, which later won a $319million tender to expand the 300 MW Kariba South Hydro Power Station in Zimbabwe. Through his company, IRB, Guma has reportedly brokered multimillion Pula deals between several African governments and Chinese multinationals, in the process earning himself millions in consultancy fees.

He was the middleman when Sinohydro was contracted to build several infrastructure developments in Botswana, including the new Sir Seretse Khama Airport, Kang-Hukuntsi road, Francistown-Ramokgwebana road, Dikgatlhong Dam, Lotsane dam and Francistown/Ramokgwebana road.