MISA boss waxes lyrical about DIS tour

Monkagedi Gaothobogwe | Monday March 9, 2015 17:48

His information about the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) Director had been based on scandalous reports in the media.

When the DIS boss gave Maphanyane a call expressing his desire to take him on a familiarisation tour of  some of the facilities of the DIS making news in the local press for all the wrong reasons, Maphanyane says he agreed to the invitation that was followed by a letter, paving way for his MISA office to finalise the logistics for him. Maphanyane says before he embarked on the tour he left a message with the loved ones that they should know whose invitation he took in case he does not return by sunset.

He laughs now at the statement he made because he would later find Kgosi to be a different ‘animal’, he says, from the one that is often depicted in the media.

“I thought he never interacts with the media, but he tells me that on the contrary he had initiated a get-together with the editors in the past through the Editors Forum, but that effort collapsed  as he says it, the Editors Forum would not initiate further interactions with him.

“I was both pleased and surprised to learn that he had initiated such a forum with our editors and somehow the interactions did not continue, as editors did not invite him, but expected to be invited by him. I would like the interaction with the DIS to continue for the benefit of Batswana.  We will have to find out what made it fail and see if we can revive it under the Editors Forum again, or MISA and the Press Council can take over the initiative because I think it is noble,” says Maphanyane.

He says that he found Kgosi welcoming, open and candid during the tour of the facilities. Maphanyane says: “After so much was reported about him and the facilities, for him to be so candid, so open, was impressive to me.”

“He took us to a site which newspapers reported had tunnels that were constructed to help the President skip the country after the elections last year. I personally looked around for traces of trenches hoping to find something on the other side of the road because the allegations were that these tunnels had been dug all the way from the State House, to Glen Valley, Ruretse and Phakalane.”

“No, there were no traces of the existence of such tunnels, ngwanaka. He even invited us to tour the so-called tunnel, which we found to be a water tower they are erecting for their facility.  Of course there are many buildings around, but he was candid and open about everything. 

The truth is that the organisation is expanding, they are building new offices, and would be relocating some of their staff from the old Radio Botswana premises, which has since become too small for them,” he says.

Maphanyane says they literally walked into every building, and their hosts opened some high security entries for the tour group with their access cards, to let them see what lies beneath.  “Of course some of the things they saw there cannot be written about because that might compromise the  national security.” he says. The MISA chairperson says he is also convinced that the Kopong shooting range facility, which was reported to be a torture camp by a local newspaper recently, purely exists for training purposes as the DIS explained to the tour group.

“They did not steal the land.  They applied for the land as the office of the President for the obvious reason that they are a secret agency.  Otherwise everything they showed us fits well. They showed us a lot of security training that takes place there for the good of the country, including some operations that cannot be disclosed,” he says. Maphanyane says the Kopong site was chosen by the DIS because it is basically a useless land, an abandoned quarry site with no agriculture or residential value to the residents of the nearby villages.

“I for one asked them whether they warned the nearby residents ahead of their practices, and they said yes.  They warn them that the exercises are on, until such and such a time; but even then, they have a red flag they erect to signal to the communities that training is on; there is also a buffer zone between the training grounds and the public path,” Maphanyane says. “I think at the end I saw an effort, that for me, was surprising.  After some time though, I realised this effort used to exist with the Editors Forum; I think with continued relations we can learn a lot and understand security issues; we ended with that tone of amenable interaction, of no anger, bitterness, and I hope we can move forward with that attitude,” he says. On allegations that the tour was meant to divide the media, Maphanyane says, he learnt on the day of the tour that the event was being done in batches for purposes of management.

“I have been made to believe that in future more media houses will be invited to take part. I found representatives of some of the reputable private media houses in the group,” he says. “As we were relaxing and having Nandos, my advice was go and report what you have seen.  You are not being bought with the Nandos,” Maphanyane says. He adds that he believes in an independent media, which report issues boldly and responsibly: “I liked the fact that everybody was asking questions, and those that were in the tour were addressed in a candid manner”.