20 Mar 2022

Gaborone High Court has reserved a multi-million pula lawsuit judgement against Debswana Diamond Company.

Justice Abednego Tafa said he would release judgement on June 16 or at an earlier date after the defendant, Debswana, closed its case on Thursday.

The announcement followed a brief evidence from the witness, a former managing director of Debswana, Mr Balisi Bonyongo, who was the third and last witness for Debswana.

 Mr Bonyongo told the court that he had preferred the late Mr Albert Milton to succeed him as managing director.

 He said he had indicated his choice to the Debswana board of directors, adding that his choice was influenced by the qualifications and competence of the candidate.

He indicated that there was another candidate, Ms Lynette Armstrong who had applied to be considered for the role, but she later withdrew from the race.

Furthermore, Mr Bonyongo told the court that the role of managing director was a prerogative of Debswana shareholders and ratified by the board.

When being crossed examined by the plaintiff attorney, Mr Kgosietsile Ngakayagae on who would were Debswana shareholders, he said it would be the government of Botswana and De Beers.

Furthermore, he told the court that he communicated his preferred candidate in writing to the Debswana board.

However, Mr Bonyongo said he did not communicate his preferred candidate to the company’s head of security, human resources manager and the other contesting candidate.

Infotrac managing director, Mr Mompoloki Motshidi, had previously told the court that the company was engaged by Debswana through the then head of security services and human resource manager.

The former managing director was giving evidence for his former employer, who is being sued for P110 million by Infotrac Propriety Limited for unpaid debt.

 Infotrac dragged the mining company to court, accusing them for failure to honour a verbal contractual agreement entered into in 2018 to lobby for the late Mr Milton to become the next managing director.

Debswana had through their legal representative, Mr John Carr-Hartley denied Infotrac version, saying the company had in fact entered into an agreement with Mr Milton in his personal capacity, therefore Debswana was not liable to the lawsuit. ends