Former President Mokgweetsi Masisi has reportedly pleaded ignorance regarding the controversial P45.1 million Karakul sheep procurement, effectively withdrawing the executive shield that protected the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) and former Director General Brigadier Peter Magosi from DCEC investigations.
As source close to the investigations has confirmed to the Sunday Standard that the DCEC recently interviewed Masisi on the controversial deal, the former president claimed ignorance and directed all questions to the DIS and Magosi.
By denying knowledge of the transaction and refusing to invoke presidential privilege, Masisi dismantled the agency’s national security defense and empowered the DCEC to treat the deal as potential financial fraud.
In the high-stakes legal chess game unfolding within Botswana’s accountability bodies, Masisi’s recorded statement has altered the balance of power. A source inside the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) explained that under established public procurement law, subordinate officials cannot be easily prosecuted for financial irregularities if they can prove they were executing a direct, lawful command from the head of state under an authorized national budget.
Had Masisi chosen to invoke presidential privilege, it would have signaled that the DIS acted with the full, explicit authorization of the Commander-in-Chief. That legal maneuver would have instantly shifted the status of the P45,142,152 transaction from an ‘unauthorized, irregular transaction’ to a ‘classified, executive-sanctioned expenditure,’ completely insulating the spy chief and his internal signatories from personal criminal liability.
Instead, the former president’s flat plea of ignorance has cut the ropes on Magosi’s primary defense line. During a prior Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing, Magosi had aggressively stonewalled lawmakers, claiming that details surrounding the Karakul sheep deal were strictly classified for national security reasons. That defense implicitly signaled to the public that the DIS was executing a sensitive, top-secret directive from the highest office in the land.
By formally denying any knowledge of the transaction to DCEC investigators, Masisi has exposed that narrative as a fiction. The former president’s statement establishes that the multi-million-pula livestock procurement was never an authorized, top-down state mandate. Rather, it was an isolated, independent gamble taken entirely within the walls of the DIS, leaving Magosi to stand completely alone before the law.
Furthermore, Masisi’s statement completely neutralizes the intelligence apparatus’s most effective shield, the blanket claim of national security. Historically, whenever independent auditors or parliamentary oversight committees knocked on the door of the DIS, the agency refused cooperation by arguing that revealing its financial trails would compromise the safety of the republic.
A DCEC insider explained that the argument holds no legal water when the former president, who served as the ultimate custodian of Botswana’s national security when the funds were moved, states under oath that he has no idea what the operation was about. With the executive cover evaporated, the DCEC is now fully empowered to strip away the classification tags and treat the missing Central Asian sheep import as a standard case of public fund misappropriation.
Armed with Masisi’s official disclaimer, DCEC investigators now have the green light to launch an unprecedented financial audit of the intelligence agency’s internal accounting systems. The DIS can no longer hide behind missing paperwork or classified exemptions. They are now legally compelled to produce the raw internal authorization vouchers, bank transfer records with Absa Bank, and procurement board minutes that permitted over P45 million to exit the state treasury for Dubai-based contractor Grand Technology Resources.
If the resulting paper trail proves that these public funds were diverted without proper statutory approvals, the entire upper echelon of the DIS will face total exposure. Masisi’s refusal to shield his former spy chief has effectively transformed the missing Uzbekistan sheep from a quiet bureaucratic mystery into an existential legal crisis for Botswana’s intelligence elite, proving that even the most powerful security apparatus cannot survive once the palace withdraws its favor.