BLF refuses to stop ‘slandering’ Patrice Motsepe and sister over ‘Botswana coup plot’

Following a lawyers’ letter to the leader of Black First Land First (BLF), Andile Mngxitama, from the richest black man in South Africa, businessman Patrice Motsepe – warning Mngxitama to refrain from allegedly slandering him and Motsepe’s sister Bridgette Radebe – the BLF has doubled down.

“We are not for sale. He [Motsepe] will never get an apology from us,” Mngxitama told The Citizen on Saturday.

Motsepe and his lawyers responded on Friday to utterances from Mngxitama at a press conference this week at which Mngxitama had accused Radebe, the wife of Energy Minister Jeff Radebe, and her brother of underhanded political and business dealings in Botswana.

Radebe and her associate, Sandton businessman Malcolm X, have had their freedom to come and go into Botswana as they please revoked by that government, meaning they will need visas in future if they wish to attend to their mining interests in Botswana.

Patrice Motsepe took issue on Friday with Mngxitama having alleged that his sister had ambitions to take over the diamond industry in Botswana, and that she and her wealthy brother had been involved in an alleged coup plot in the country to that end.

His lawyers said: “These remarks are all untruthful.” The lawyers added that Mngxitama’s comments were injurious to their client’s dignity, were offensive, derogatory, hurtful and exposed their client to general disesteem and ill-will.

Letter to Andile Mngxitama & BLF by Charles Cilliers on Scribd

Motsepe’s lawyers demanded that Mngxitama and the BLF give a written undertaking by Sunday afternoon that they would refrain from making any further allegedly defamatory remarks, or the lawyers would institute civil action against him him in the high court.

Far from apologising, Mngxitama released a statement on Saturday morning in which he made further written accusations against Radebe and Motsepe, once again welcoming the decision of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) government to impose travel restrictions on Bridgette Radebe due to the accusations of her being “involved in a regime change campaign to remove President Masisi from power and replace him with Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, who is backed by Masisi’s predecessor, Ian Khama”.

He repeated the allegation that Radebe was “being used” by supposed “imperialist interests to create hostility towards President Mokgweetsi Masisi in return for securing her own mining interests”.

Despite Motsepe and his lawyers explicitly having shown exception to his being associated with the phrase “white monopoly capital”, Mngxitama again alleged that Radebe and Motsepe were working “in service of the interests of settler white monopoly capital in cahoots with global capitalist imperialism”.

He further repeated allegations that Bridgette Motsepe had attempted to buy the elective conference in Botswana with P60 million (R80 million) via the agency of former president Ian Khama – in favour of Venson-Moitoi against Masisi.

The BLF referenced a news report in Botswana’s Sunday Standard from 1 April in which allegations were made in the run-up to the BDP’s elective conference ahead of the October presidential elections.

The article’s authors claimed they had listened to “audio tapes in which Bridgette Motsepe, [Botswana public relations expert] Kabelo Binns and Malcolm X are discussing, among other things how they were going to move the funds to finance Venson-Moitoi’s campaign”.

The article further alleged that Bridgette Radebe had sent R10 million to Botswana during the last week of March 2019 in pursuance of “big mining concessions in Botswana”.

The BLF called for Bridgette Radebe’s alleged conduct to be investigated and “appropriate action” to be taken.

They further called on Botswana’s government to finalise its investigation into reports that Patrice Motsepe had allegedly “donated R22 million to Venson-Moitoi’s campaign”, including reports that this money had supposedly been “smuggled” into Botswana.

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