Masisi's day in court imminent
Businessman Monametsi Chiepe of Champrimo Botswana Group of Companies has finally made an application before the High Court to drag former President Mokgweetsi Masisi into a legal suit against the government's procurement of Bulls for the Ministry of Agriculture.
Chiepe had prior to general elections indicated in court papers that Champrino Botswana Group of Companies will sue the then President Masisi upon vacating the seat of head of state.
“We accordingly hereby place Your Excellency on notice that it is our intention to either: join Your Excellency as an additional defendant to the current proceedings, if Your Excellency should vacate office at the conclusion of the upcoming general elections or otherwise vacate office at any time before the current proceedings are finalised, or alternatively, institute proceedings against Your
Excellency alone if Your Excellency only vacates office in 2029 when Your Excellency is legally obliged to vacate office after serving two terms,” he said.
He argued that President Masisi had acted in bad faith, 'on grounds that on the 4th June 2018, he came on an unsolicited visit to the principal place of business, Desert Ranch Reproduction Management Centre, at Lot 29 Mmamashia. During this visit, the President is said to have made a formal plea to the group not to relocate their head office to outside the country when they were at an advanced stage of relocating to the United Arab Emirates,' reads the part of the application..
The company would then be expected to cater to their international clientele from Botswana and thereby make Botswana a Centre of Excellence in livestock value chains. Further: 'The company will transfer their capabilities, knowledge and intellectual property to the nation for the ownership and benefit of farmers for the purpose of national economic transformation and economic impact to support the president’s new national development agenda, as you espoused before us less than five weeks after assuming office of the Presidency; and to adjust our programmes, local and international to re-align them so as to dovetail with those of the Botswana government.'
Champrimo Botswana (1st Applicant), Trilobite Holding (Pty) Ltd (2nd Applicant); Technologies (Pty) ltd -Trading as Impact Genetics- (3rd Applicant) and Peter Monamentsi Chiepe (4th Applicant) made a joinder application to have the former president be part of the law suit they launched against the Ministry of Agriculture.
In a deposed affidavit for purposes of joining the former President, Chiepe stated that joining of Masisi as 2nd Defendant in the Main Action will be helpful because he abused the Applicant's intellectual property for his own personal gain. He said Masisi could not be sued when the Applicants instituted action, as he enjoyed immunity from prosecution by virtue of having been the President of the Republic of Botswana. He indicated that on the 31st October 2024, Masisi lost the general elections and consequently any immunity that he had by virtue of that position.
“He is a party that, jointly and severally with the 1st Respondent, circumvented the Applicants’ business; appropriated Applicants’ intellectual property and confidential information; engaged in acts of unlawful competition; infringed the Applicants’ copyright and breached agreements to the detriment of the Applicants,” reads the affidavit.
Chiepe avers that Masisi not only plagiarized the Applicants’ intellectual property but also copied it and implemented it for his personal gain at his farms. In so acting, the 2nd Respondent not only acted illegally but abused his office and acted corruptly, he added. Chiepe pointed out that using his position as President, Masisi frustrated all efforts to an amicable solution with the Applicants and went out of his way to destroy and kill the Applicants business.
“Using the Applicants’ Intellectual property and confidential information, the 2nd Respondent instructed the 1st Respondent to import bulls from the United States of America to which he and others derived personal benefit,” he explained.
The Applicants aver that had it not been for Masisi’s plea, that they should not relocate their head office; that they should transfer their know how and intellectual property to the nation; that they establish Botswana as a centre of excellence for livestock value chain; that they should hold their international business with governments of other SADC member states in abeyance, they would have continued on the path and trajectory they had embarked upon.
They contend that Masisi is guilty of mala fides and as such should be personally liable to us for the loss and damages the group has suffered in consequence thereof. It is the Group’s position that they have a cause of action against the president in his private and personal capacity, independently of the actions of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Effort to speak to the former President were futile.