30 Jan 2018

Prosecution in a case in which Bakang Seretse, Botho Leburu and Kenneth Kerekang are accused of money laundering has promised it will address the issue regarding relaxation of bail conditions among others in the next court sitting scheduled for March 7, 2018.

Mr Ambrose Mubika, from Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) made the promise before Gaborone South Regional Magistrate, Mr Chris Gabanagae after defence attorney, Mr Kgosietsile Ngakaagae had applied for the court to consider relaxing bail conditions for his clients to allow them to report once a fortnight instead of once every week.

Mr Ngakaagae noted that the current arrangement where his clients were required to report every Friday at Gaborone West Police Station was negating on their socio-economic lives as they could not attend to social activities such as funerals at their villages without having to come back to report on Friday.

He therefore, proposed that at least they should report to any nearest police station.

On another issue, attorney Ngakaagae reasoned that his clients were business people who were mobile by the nature of their duties and had to constantly move out of the country to meet with clients and therefore requested that they be given their passports back or at least an arrangement be made for them to get back the passports when they want to leave the country and return them a day after their return.   

In the meantime, Mr Ngakaagae said the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) had gone on ‘undeserved spree’ of seizing his clients’ vehicles without a warrant and further failing to validate such a procedure before a judicial officer as prescribed by Criminal and Evidence Act Section 56.

He said ‘the harassment’ on his clients was unjustified and reckless abuse of the law which should stop forthwith.

In the interim, Mr Mubika had earlier requested that the next mention be scheduled in four weeks-time to afford the investigations, which he said were progressing well to unearth more information they needed, Mr Ngakaagae said the state should inform the court how long it would take to finish its investigations in case it went overboard.

He warned that since the state had also amended the charge sheet and decided to register the case while it was still carrying out investigations, it would be prejudicial to his clients to come to court and continuously be informed that investigations were not complete.

As a parting shot, Mr Ngakaagae said there was a need to review the decision of the prosecution unit why it decided to charge only three people on a selective basis and leave host of many other such as Mr Isaac Kgosi (director of DISS) and Dr Obakeng, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Minerals Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, among others.  He noted that he would deal with the matter in the next sitting.    

In the same breadth, Mr Ngakaagae said the state should understand that the accused had not joined the issue with the state because they had not taken a plea and therefore proposed that the state either drop the charges with prejudice to the state or reinstate them when ready to proceed.

In his brief response, Mr Mubika pleaded with the court to set the next date on mention in a month’s time, noting that they would be able to update the court on the progress made thus far. In addition, he said the case was complex and might require that the investigations be extended outside the shores of the country.

According to the particulars of the offence, the accused persons Seretse, Khulaco (Pty) Ltd, herein represented by Seretse, Leburu and Kerekang are said to have on a date unknown to the prosecution, but between September 5, 2017 and November 27, 2017 in Gaborone acting jointly and with common purpose received, possessed, disguised and disposed P250 000 000 knowing or suspecting or having reasonable grounds to know or suspect that the money was derived or realised in whole or in part, directly or indirectly from the commission of a confiscation offense to wit theft.

Seretse is managing director of Khulaco (Pty) Ltd while Leburu is director of Khulaco. On the other hand Kerekang is executive director of BERA.
The accused are on a cash bail of P30 000 each with each producing two sureties binding themselves with P10 000 each, report every Friday at Gaborone West Police Station and have also surrendered their passports to the investigating officer. Ends