The Court of Appeal has ordered the Botswana Police Service to immediately reinstate Superintendent Christopher Molobe to his former rank, ending a decade-long legal battle that nearly destroyed the senior officer’s career. The ruling, issued on July 31, 2026, exposed what the court described as irrational decisions and serious legal errors by the nation’s top police officials.
The saga began over ten years ago at the Ghanzi Police Station, where Molobe served as Station Commander, a role that carried significant responsibility and trust. Between February 2014 and August 2015, he faced allegations of theft involving money held as evidence. Authorities claimed that two sums, P5,000.00 and P1,692.00, had vanished under his watch. For the man overseeing the entire station, these accusations struck at the core of his professional integrity and threatened to end his career.
The matter proceeded to a Class I Disciplinary Board hearing in June 2016, where the proceedings took an unexpected turn. Three key prosecution witnesses testified about the missing funds; notably, two of them supported Molobe’s account.
One witness testified she was present when the money was handed over to the incoming commander. Another, responsible for the station’s registers, confirmed that no money was missing during the handover, to his knowledge.
Yet the new Station Commander painted a starkly different picture. He asserted that the money had not been properly handed over and that the serial numbers on the cash did not align with the station’s records.
Court documents reveal that although the case centered on missing money, the prosecution never produced the cash as evidence before the Board. Despite two witnesses affirming the money’s presence, the Board sided solely with the one dissenting witness, found Molobe guilty, and recommended his dismissal from the police service.
When the case reached the Commissioner of Police, he altered the punishment from dismissal to retirement. While seemingly a more lenient outcome, this decision triggered a significant legal controversy.
Under the Police Act in effect at the time, the Commissioner lacked the authority to review and amend a Class I Board’s sentence. The law assigned this power exclusively to the Permanent Secretary to the President.
“By taking the decision into his own hands, the Commissioner acted ultra vires; a legal term meaning he went beyond the powers the law gave him.”
Unwilling to relent, Molobe challenged the decision in the High Court. Justice Lot Moroka ruled that the Commissioner’s actions were unlawful and that the original conviction was irrational, as it disregarded evidence that exonerated Molobe. The state appealed, escalating the case to the Court of Appeal in Gaborone.
The three justices, Judge President Tebogo Tau, Mercy Garekwe, and Dr. Sidney Pilane, closely examined Sections 28 and 29 of the Police Act.
The state argued that because Molobe faced dismissal, the Commissioner’s intervention fell under Section 28. The justices found this reasoning contradictory. They clarified that Section 28 pertains only to the types of punishments a Board may recommend, while Section 29 exclusively outlines the proper legal procedure for reviewing those punishments. Since the Commissioner bypassed these procedures, his decision was declared a nullity – legally void as if it never occurred.
The justices also sharply criticized the original Board’s handling of evidence, calling it irrational and unreasonable to disregard two consistent witnesses in favor of one dissenting voice. They noted that “when there are major gaps or contradictions in a case, the benefit of the doubt should go to the person being accused.”
In its final ruling, the Court of Appeal delivered a comprehensive victory for Molobe. It ordered his immediate reinstatement as Superintendent and mandated that the state pay all back pay owed since his removal, plus 10 percent interest.
The only concession to the state was that Molobe would not receive automatic pay increments, as he had not requested them in his initial court filings.
For Molobe, the judgment closes a long, dark chapter, restoring both his career and reputation within the Botswana Police Service.