Butterfly sues state for P 30 million

Sharon Mathala
OUTSIDE COURT: Maswabi & Ndadi

Also demands public apology

Suspended Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DIS) spy, Wilhelmina Maswabi codenamed Butterfly has slapped Botswana Government with a P 30 000 000.00 defamation of character lawsuit.

Butterfly, who strongly believes that Government through the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has tarnished her good name has further demanded a public apology and retraction, on her own terms failure to which she will approach the high court for an order.

Butterfly was dramatically arrested on October, 18th 2019 and slapped with serious charges including financing terrorism, a charge linked to her former boss, the then Director-General of the (DISS) Isaac Kgosi.

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She was also charged with possession of the unexplained property as well as a false declaration to a public officer.

Almost a year since her dramatic arrest amidst court appearance scenes that captivated Batswana, Butterfly filed a defamation suit last week.

In her statutory notice, Butterfly has served the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), Attorney General (AG), her employer Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DIS), punching holes into the lead investigator Jako Hubona’s affidavit.

“The allegations in the said charge sheet and the Hubona affidavit are defamatory of the client (Butterfly) as they falsely implicate her in money laundering and financing terrorism,” reads the notice in part.

“The statement or accusation in the Hubona affidavit is wrongful and unlawful and were made with the nefarious intent to defame client. If the statement were not wrongful and unlawful at the time they were made, for any reason, a failure to retract and apologize for the statement in light of the contents of this letter and its annexure would certainly be wrongful and unlawful in all circumstances,” Butterfly argues further adding that the allegations against her were deliberately fabricated.

Butterfly’s suit relies on the ‘independent’ report that was released by Omina strategy back in August. The report claimed that the reserve bank in South Africa has denied any authorization of transfer of any amount of P 48 million allegedly by Butterfly as alleged by the Hubona affidavit.

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The report further found that there was no Blue flies (Pty) LTD and Fireflies (PTY) LTD accounts at the listed banks in south Africa which Butterfly is alleged to have been a co-signatory of.

“Notwithstanding that the DPP and DCEC have in their possession some of these documents they proceeded to make damning allegations against the client in the Hubona affidavit,” the court papers read.

 

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