04 Feb 2024

Former permanent secretary to the president Carter Morupisi has been given time to file supplementary heads of arguments to address the Court of Appeal on the possibility of the sentence imposed on him by the High Court being enhanced.

Morupisi, who was given a suspended sentence and fined about P130 000 by Justice Chris Gabanagae of Gaborone High Court in 2022 is appealing his conviction of corruption and money laundering.

“In your grounds of appeal you have not filed anything about the sentence but in the relief sought you say conviction and sentence be set aside.

We want you to address us on whether we should not enhance the sentence,” said Judge President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Tebogo Tau to the defence attorney Mr Busang Manewe in Gaborone on Thursday.

In response, Mr Manewe said it was not what they had anticipated hence he was amenable to the matter being postponed to the April session to allow them time to file their supplementary arguments.

“It is a matter that we have not anticipated and it appears very weighty,” he said on the possibility of his client’s sentence being reviewed on appeal.

Morupisi who appeared before Justices Tau, Singh Walia and Bess Nkabinde wanted his conviction overturned and be acquitted of Justice Gabanagae who had convicted and sentenced him on two counts of corruption and money laundering.

One count one, he was sentenced to two years imprisonment wholly for three years on condition that he does not commit an offence of that nature.

On the second count, he was fined P50 000 or five years imprisonment in default while on the third count, he was fined P80 000 or eight years imprisonment term in default.

Justice Gabanagae had him to have abused his office whilst employed in the public service and chairperson of the Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund.

It was found that without the final resolution of the Board, he signed a contract with Capital Management Botswana.

He was said to have also received a valuable consideration being a Toyota Land Cruiser, which he knew that it was directly or indirectly from the commission of offence.

However, in the papers he filed before the court to appeal, Morupisi argued that the charges he was convicted of were bad for duplicity, which was prejudicial to him.

He said High Court erred and misdirected itself by failing to conclude that the said Toyota Land Cruiser, which is the subject of the three counts was bought by him and cannot be said to be a valuable consideration in terms of the Corruption and Economic Crime Act.

Also, he reasoned that the court erred by failing to have considered his side of the story, adding that there were no findings that his evidence was beyond reasonable doubt false.
The case was postponed to April session. ENDS