Butterfly reinstatement is an indictment on Magosi
Wilhelmina ‘Butterfly’ Maswabi is back at work. Surprised? Nothing is surprising anymore. In case you are surprised, welcome to Brigadier Peter Magosi’s world; where the line between fact and fiction is as thin as a razor blade.
Having followed the circus that was ‘Butterfly’s case with a great sense of bewilderment, I have come to a conclusion that in Magosi, there lies President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s demise. Permit me compatriots to state; intelligence and opinion are two different things. And that, intelligence is not doing extraordinary things to get ordinary results, but doing ordinary things to get extraordinary results.
Intelligence and opinion are two different sets of knowledge. The logical form of intelligence analysis dictates that, opinion does not inform intelligence, instead, intelligence informs opinion. How this ‘Butterfly’ fairy-tale has ended, is another serious credibility dent, not only on Magosi, but on the entire security apparatus. Further, it is not only an embarrassment to Masisi, it is a lethal indictment on his leadership.
There is no pretence to it, we can all see that Magosi’s games have come to a dead-end. Butterfly’s case was just a wild-goose chase. Since assuming the position of chief-spy, Magosi has been nothing but a grand circus show. The blunders, legal and otherwise, have seen us becoming laughing stock of all nations.
The political burden, insurmountable. The national shame, indescribable. But contrary to boundaries of logic, Magosi still stands. He still retains his position as chief-spy. The tragedy is that, through all these arrests, there is absolutely nothing to show for it, but piling lawsuit against the State.
Essentially, taxpayers’ money is being wasted on these witch-hunt escapades and catfights under the veil of ‘national security.’ When Batswana seek answers to this daily drama, they are stone-walled with evocation of the term, ‘national security’.
There are surely good intentions in some of President Masisi’s strategic endeavours, but more often than not, his efforts are cancelled by adventurism of his chief-spy. So far, there seems to be nothing inhibiting Magosi’s progression from a strategic liability to a political burden.
Masisi is still struggling with strategic stability in his government, especially in the security sector. As far as I am concerned, this is largely attributable to Magosi. Magosi’s efforts at reforming Botswana’s security architecture and processes have been reactive, emotional, careless, piecemeal and only incremental rather than holistic.
As a political resultant from ‘Butterfly’s case, we went on to hurt our diplomatic relations with South Africa by considering, AfriForum; an Afrikaner nationalist group, espousing white supremacist ideology as our ‘strategic’ partner in the matter. With all due respect, there was no way Advocate Gerrie Nel was to pull a rabbit out of the hat by making material evidence of the case to suddenly appear from nowhere.
Security and intelligence services, the need for which cannot be put into doubt, must nonetheless not become a “state within the state”, exempted from accountability for their actions. Such lack of accountability leads to a dangerous culture of impunity, which undermines the very foundations of democratic institutions.
In its arbitrary arrests, DIS is increasingly invoking “state secrecy” or “national security” in order to ward off public or judicial scrutiny of their actions. DIS legal blunders have become a dependable ‘cash-cow’ for Masisi’s political adversaries.
Instead of delivering services to the people, the government is stuck with millions of Pula lawsuits to settle. As far as its fruitless raids, lost court cases and other accompanying theatrics are concerned, it is safe to conclude that extending Peter Magosi’s stay in office would be like putting a log in water and expecting it to become a crocodile.