06 Jun 2016

GABORONE - The Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) notes with concern that in its latest, June 5 2016 edition, the Sunday Standard newspaper has yet again published false and misleading information about our organisation. 

In this respect it would appear that circulating false information about the DIS to deceive unsuspecting members of the public has become a favourite pastime at the said newspaper. We are thus compelled to dismiss a story headlined “DISS recruits 200 soldiers and 200 police officers for counter-terrorism” written by Sonny Serite. Here we wish to state unequivocally that the alleged recruitment of soldiers, police officers and further training of them outside the country is absolutely false.

The story in our view can be described as mischief making by the newspaper’s editors and their reporter Sonny Serite.

On a different note, we also feel compelled to respectfully take issue with what we view to be misleading allegations contained in a separate article by Hon. Ndaba Gaolathe that among other things states that the Directorate of Intelligence and Security is an “unprofessional Secret Service that has grown to silence and demonize political progressives and cause leakages of public funds to entrench the grip of the political elite”. In response we would refer Hon. Gaolathe to Section 5 (2) of the Intelligence and Security Service Act 2007 which prohibits the Directorate from performing acts that could give rise to suspicion that the Directorate is concerned in furthering, protecting or undermining the interests of any particular section of the population or of any political party or other organization in Botswana.

Further to the above, the Directorate of Intelligence and Security carries out its duties with guidance from institutions responsible for providing oversight, such as, the Parliamentary Committee on Intelligence and Security (PCIS), the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), of which Hon. Gaolathe is a member. 

He is empowered, through the PCIS and the PAC, to point out any wrongdoing by the Directorate and not through unsubstantiated allegations through the Sunday Standard newspaper.

Members of the public should rest assured that no amount of misinformation intended to demonize the Directorate of Intelligence and Security would derail the Directorate from performing its functions as outlined in Section 5 of the Intelligence and Security Service Act 2007. ENDS