The High Court  has ordered the imprisonment of the Director of Public Service Management, Gaone Macholo, and the Director of Intelligence and Security Services, Peter Magosi, after finding them in contempt of a June 2024 court order.

In a ruling delivered on Monday, Justice Dr. Zeinub Kebonang dismissed an application by the State seeking directions under Order 28 and Order 33, instead granting a contempt order against the two senior officials.

According to the court order, the First Respondent (Director of Public Service Management) and the Second Respondent (Director of Intelligence and Security Services) “are committed to imprisonment where they shall be held until such time as they would have purged their contempt.”

The Registrar of the High Court has been directed to immediately issue a writ of personal attachment and committal to prison, authorizing Deputy Sheriffs or Botswana Police Service officers to apprehend the two officials and deliver them to any prison facility in Gaborone.

The ruling further ordered the Attorney General, cited as the Third Respondent, alongside Macholo and Magosi, to bear the costs of the application jointly and severally, with one paying absolving the other. The costs are to be paid on the punitive scale of legal practitioner and client.

The contempt charges stem from the failure of the respondents to comply with a High Court order issued on 3 June 2024. The case was brought by Pelotshweu Masilomangwe and 406 other DIS against the government entities.