Phiri Responds To DCEC Smear campaign
Staff Writer | Friday April 21, 2017 23:09
For the record, I am a reputable businessman who is revered for hard work and efficiency. My companies, Khato Civils and South Zambezi, both headquartered in Johannesburg, have annual turnover of over R2 billion .
Like I have stated before, my mother comes from Botswana, and my father comes from Malawi. My father is Malawian, like many other Batswana whose fathers come from neigbouring countries. I am as Motswana as I am Malawian. In my Botswana family at Tonota, just for your information, we are inter-tribal and international. There are uncles in our family who have married citizens from countries such as Angola, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, to mention just a few. My Malawianness is being emphasised by people whose parents are also from other countries. Botlhale says the basis for her defamation against me is that I had written about her, four months ago, a malicious, false, misleading and defamatory article intended to harm her reputation.
Let me state for the record that I did not write in the newspapers to harm anybody, but rather to highlight the following;
• DCEC mentions Malawian and leaks to newspapers a narrative that Simbi Phiri ,a Malawian deposits money in Botswana from South Africa, the Botswana which he has nothing to do with; basically saying the money brought into Botswana is to hide it from the South African authorities.
This is a blatant lie. I have brought money because I have opened a branch in Botswana.
Phiri
Who hides money by putting it in a bank account?
Who hides money by declaring it at the border? Who hides money by declaring his identities to both authorities in Botswana and South Africa? Who hides from authorities by declaring his contact numbers to authorities?
Botlhale knows who Simbi Phiri is, where he has lived for the past 25 years, what Simbi has been doing to make money and where he currently lives, including his telephone
not to know where to find me? The answer is lies. Botlhale could have told them even if, as she says, the integrity of investigations requires secrecy, after the Court had summoned me there was no longer any secret to be had. Botlhale could have given information to DCEC as she knows who I am and what I have. She chose to keep quiet.
I mentioned the R400,000 that I gave you and your husband. By the way, your husband has confirmed receipt of the money in writing to me, to highlight that not only do you know me, but you do rely on me for help from time to time.
As for the Fancourt holiday worth over R200,000, you know this, Botlhale, that I gave you the money which today, you are denying.
At the time of Fancourt, you allege that I was poor and running an insurance brokerage and therefore
unable to pay for a holiday of the amount mentioned. Botlhale, who then paid for the holiday because you couldn’t either? The truth is, I was running the insurance company, Khato Civils, and I was a director of LTE Consulting. In actual fact, I was already a millionaire at the time of Fancourt.
You said we stumbled upon each other. The truth is, that holiday was an arrangement by myself, my wife and your husband, Kagiso. Perhaps you don’t remember because you didn’t pay? Obtaining a freezing order of my accounts from the Court by false claims that I cannot be found, yet all the information was available, even to you, is fraudulent, by yourself and DCEC, and could only mean that the intention was not to find me, but rather to demonise me.
There is paperwork that shows your involvement. Choose the forum where you want me to put this out, whether in Court or this particular forum. You are very much involved in this slander, Botlhale. You are very much at the top of it in fact. I know that others have joined you along the way and you have made a team. It is in the open.
You are daring me to prove my allegations against you. Dear Botlhale. Be careful what you wish for as you may just get it. You are conflicted deeply in this whole thing. It’s not funny. I cannot separate you from your husband in this matter because you and your husband came to my Gaborone offices wherein your husband told Ishmael (Office Manager) and his wife in your presence that Khato Civils was his idea and that he was pushed out by myself, at the last minute.
Your husband said a lot in your presence, when you accompanied him in his verbal war against me, where he also made threats that he was going to fix me using you, and you just smiled. That was shortly before the DCEC’s false allegations against me started. They started soon after this infamous visit to my premises by you and your husband to threaten my employees and myself. The threats have come to pass indeed.
Can you deny this?
Your letter also alleges that Kagiso’s father accepted me at his home when everyone else had turned their back on me. You insinuate that I was a poverty-stricken boy from Malawi until uncle Thuso had pity on me. Let me remind you that I have never slept in uncle Thuso’s house, not even foraday.HewasamanIlookeduptoforadvicein the day and stayed with my cousin. You definitely got it wrong. I was never poor in Botswana. I just didn’t have anything for the moment.
But as for you Botlhale, I know you came from a poverty-stricken background and you know it. I don’t need to remind you.
The DCEC has never rebutted newspaper allegations that I was found with $8.8million in the boot of my car, attributed to their investigations while the truth is there was no money found in my car, but your organisation has left this to be a narrative that I carried $8.8million in the boot of the car. Really, Botlhale?! The truth of the matter is, all these allegations from the DCEC are lies, fabrications, nonsensical and preposterous meant to achieve your personal goals and those of other people who have joined you to destroy me.
My eyes are wide open. I have no intention to tarnish anyone’s reputation, but the truth is, you have gone too far in your efforts to tarnish my reputation, way too far. You have put me through hell and I will give it back to you.
Four times you have taken me to Court and four times you have lost. Even the Appeals Court, which you may think was a victory, it says clearly you have no basis to claim that the funds are illegal, but allows DCEC to finalise the investigation within reasonable time without totally freezing the account which you sought. Are you really not ashamed of all this? I would if I were you, but obviously you have an agenda. Why should you?