10 Apr 2022

Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration has assured legislators that arrests conducted by the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DISS) are done within the Laws of Botswana.

Mr Dumezweni Mthimkhulu again told MPs that arrests were also guided by the Intelligence and Security Services (2008) Act.

He added that the DISS conducted arrests in terms of Section 21 of its Act and related provisions and were also conducted based on information which contained reasonable basis to warrant the intervention of the Directorate as envisaged in its establishing Act.

“Once arrests are conducted and further relevant information is established, the Directorate shares it with other law enforcement entities for different purposes,” he said.

On the other hand, Mr Mthimkhulu said it would be ill-advised to publicise information regarding arrests by the DISS in the last three years.

“Reference or allusion to any such specific information would ordinarily prejudice strategic and investigative objectives of operations which necessitated the arrests, some of which are ongoing,” he added.

The assistant minister was responding to a question asked by MP for Maun West, Mr Dumelang Saleshando in Parliament recently, through which he wanted to know the number of arrests effected by the DISS in the last three years. ENDS