We need the Law to Settle cases

Read through and you will understand that indeed we truelly need the LAW...this story is the story of Botswana's Former minister of Education and the scandals he created while he had the power..


I lied - Nkate
Written by KHONANI ONTEBETSE
WEDNESDAY, 21 APRIL 2010 00:00
The Voice newspaper


• He could be charged with perjury
• He says his statement to the DCEC on Nchindo case was false

Southern Regional Magistrate Lot Moroka will decide whether or not to impeach former Minister of Lands and Housing, Jacob Nkate.

“In this case we have a witness who brings in a lot of material, and put contradictory material before Court,” said Moroka.

Nkate is a State witness in the case in which former Debswana boss Louis Goodwill Nchindo's son, Garvas, and co-accused Joseph Matome, face corruption charges relating to the allocation of Plot 55720 in Block 10, Gaborone, to Nchindo’s company, the Tourism Development Consortium (TDC).

Last Thursday Nkate had told the Court while being cross-examined by Advocate Craig Webster that there was no evidence that Debswana was involved in the TDC project. “I can’t recall this as a Debswana project. The application by TDC had nothing to do with Debswana,” he had said.

But when being re-examined by the prosecutor, Senior State Counsel Kgosietsile Ngakaagae, the following day, Nkate revealed inconsistencies between what he had earlier told the Court and a statement that he had made to the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC).

Nkate told Magistrate Moroka last Friday: “The Court will judge whether it was a bad thing to tell a falsity under oath, and if it is done deliberately.”

Ngakaagae suggested that Nkate had changed his testimony to mislead the Court.

“I have no interest in the matters of this case and my desire is to tell the Court the truth. At the time I wrote the statement I was confused whether the land at Block 10 was obtained under TDC or under the Debswana venture. I mixed up the projects because of similarities,” Nkate replied.

Ngakaagae pointed out to Nkate that when he made the statement to DCEC director Tymon Katholo it was clear to him that the TDC was a Debswana subsidiary; only at a later stage - while in the dock - was it clear to him that it was not a Debswana subsidiary.

Nkate said the statement that he had made to Katholo under oath was false, adding: “There is a mistake in the statement; that is the case.” He said he was not under any pressure when he wrote the statement; he had also understood the gravity of his oath.

Ngakaagae reminded Nkate that on Page Four of his statement he had told the DCEC director that the TDC was a Debswana subsidiary. Nkate replied that he had understood the application by TDC to be a Debswana project.

Nkate said it was his total conviction when he used the word ‘clearly,’ that there were facts that made it clear that this was a Debswana project. At all times he had believed that the TDC was a Debswana project and that it would be based at Debswana. The application for Plot 55720 was a direct allocation that did not have to queue with others because it was of national importance, he said.

Asked by Ngakaagae if his decision to approve the application for plot 55720 was not based on what the officials in his Ministry had told him, but on a briefing by Debswana, Nkate said he had confused the application by TDC with Debswana’s.

“It must be borne in mind that there were two projects: to build a hotel and a golf course pursued by the same individual in the person of Nchindo. I had access to interact with both applications and when I wrote my statement concerning TDC I confused it with the Debswana project,” he said.

Nkate said when he learnt about the Debswana project he had become confused whether the project would be done as a TDC project, or whether there was a relationship between the two. “They were promoted by the same individual and I could not say which one was which,” he said.

Asked by Ngakaagae why as Minister he had not blown the whistle that the Debswana managing director was running a project that was in conflict with Debswana’s, Nkate suggested: “It could be that they wanted to collaborate on the same plot?”

He said he could not see any conflict of interest, even if the TDC and Debswana applications had not come at the same time.

Ngakaagae asked him if he was a friend of the late Nchindo’s. “He was an acquaintance, not a friend,” Nkate said.