Axed prisons boss Silas Motlalekgosi invited us into his home last week.
Earlier this month, Motlalekgosi was retired as head of the Botswana Prisons Service (BPS), made to leave a position he held since 2009 when he was appointed by the then President, Ian Khama.
A former Botswana Defence Force (BDF) officer, this is Motlalekgosi’s story; it is a tale he plans to document in a tell-all autobiography soon.
Let’s journey back to 2009 and your appointment to the top post in the Botswana Prisons Service.
It was very interesting when I entered the prison service, quite a dramatic entry and as I speak to you now, a dramatic exit as well.
18th February 2021
Silas Motlalekgosi, the former Commissioner of Prisons, was not just retired his sacking, it would appear, emanates from a disputed tender.
He had hoped to receive P 3 million and several hundred thousands from a government tender until the levers of power were cocked into action to circumvent his impending windfall.
The State was about to purchase his property for P3,700,000.00 (Three million seven hundred thousand Pula but reneged at the eleventh hour.Â
President Mokgweetsi Masisi fired Motlalekgosi seven days after his intention to challenge the legality of a decision by the Directorate of Intelligence and Services (DIS) to cancel a tender that the directorate had awarded him, documents leaked to
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“I was coming from a leave”- Motlalekgosi
Fired Commissioner of Prisons, Colonel Silas Motlalekgosi has accepted the controversial decision to relieve him of his duties although it came as a shock.
Motlalekgosi’s dismissal letter dated 4th February 2021 and signed by Permanent Secretary to the President, Elias Magosi, states that the President has exercised the powers vested in him by Section 8 of the Prisons (Amendment) Act No. 14 of 2017 to retire him from Botswana Prisons Service with immediate effect.
Although the decision to retire Motlalekgosi from a position he occupied since 2008 seems to have caught him by surprise, the former commissioner told this publication that he has accepted his fate.
Responding to the government of Botswana’s announcement that two people were executed on 8 February at Gaborone Central Prison after being sentenced to death in 2019 and losing their appeals in 2020, Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa said: