‘State purchased bulls were for Masisi’s farm’
Mpho Mokwape | Tuesday November 19, 2024 11:09
Masisi, who has been dragged to court by specialist cattle breeder and farmer Peter Chiepe’s in a joinder application is said to have abused the latter’s intellectual property for his own personal gain.
According to Chiepe’s joinder application in which he is already suing the Attorney General (AG) for P1bn for allegedly using his business proposal and intellectual property without his consent says he wants the former joined in the proceedings after he lost the General Election as he is no longer immune to be prosecuted.
“He could not be sued when I instituted this action as he enjoyed immunity from prosecution by virtue of having been the president. After he lost the elections, he consequently lost the immunity he had by virtue of that position,” he said.
In his supporting affidavit to the application, Chiepe stated that Masisi did not only plagiarise his intellectual property but also copied it and implemented it for his personal gain at his farms.
He explained that by so doing, he not only acted illegally but abused his office and acted corruptly.
“Using his position,Masisi as the president, he frustrated all efforts to an amicable solution with me and went out of his way to destroy and kill my business,” he said.
The businessman further submitted that Masisi by using his intellectual property and confidential information, he instructed Ministry of Agriculture to import bulls from the USA from which he and others derived personal benefit.
He stated that on account of the above, he is entitled to enforce the terms of the agreement and recover his money from Masisi which is close to P60m.
Chiepe and his companies launched a legal action against the Ministry of Agriculture, the then Deputy Permanent Secretary to the President, Elias Magosi, and Masisi, over the National Livestock Transformation Project.
The cattle breeder has alleged that he incurred losses runing into millions due a false promise by the former president over its formulation of the National Livestock Transformation Programme.
The applicants in the lawsuit, Champrimo Botswana, Trilobite Holdings, Impact Technologies and Chiepe are suing for damages suffered as a result of the dealings between the Office of the President and the company.
They argued that during the initial stages of the project the Office of the President had several engagements with its representatives and promises were made where they ended up transferring their capabilities, knowledge and intellectual property to the nation with the hope that the project will go on as planned.
“We transferred everything and they were told to adjust its local and international programmes to realign them so as to align with those of the government,” he said.
Chiepe alleged that Masisi gave them the assurance that the project will go on but to their surprise things took a different turn.