Embattled businessman, Bakang Seretse has been given a chance to continue his fight for his assets that have long been seized by government.

On Friday, the Court of Appeal (CoA) granted him leave to pay security costs out of time to proceed with his pending appeal.

When passing the ruling, CoA Justice Singh Lakhvinder Walia said there were prospects of success in the appeal.

“Having perused the pleadings and the High Court judgment and arguments before me, I am satisfied that the grounds of appeal speak to reasonable prospects on the appeal,” he said.

Walia explained that the three advanced arguments given by Seretse’s attorney, Kgosietsile Ngakaagae, were reasonable enough to grant the application.

Ngakaagae had argued that evidence used before the High Court was hearsay; there was a dispute of facts and the court erred by dealing with the seized assets collectively instead of on an individual basis.

Seretse had approached the court seeking leave to pay security costs out of time to his pending appeal citing delay due to administrative issues.

The leave was sought in a case where the assets were long seized by the State during investigations related to the National Petroleum Fund (NPF) financial scandal.

The seizure of the assets was later confirmed by the Gaborone High Court’s Justice Omphemetse Motumise’s ruling that Seretse forfeits the properties as they were obtained through proceeds of crime.

Seretse is appealing Motumise’s judgment with his main contention being that the judge was wrong to rule that the properties were proceeds of crime.

Submitting the application, Ngakaagae said the main appeal for the assets had prospects because the evidence Justice Motumise used was based on hearsay and should have never been used.

“The investigating officer did not put anything before court to authenticate his evidence other than the affidavit. No one was even called to confirm the origins of the said properties.

“The judge completely overlooked this issue,” he argued.

Ngakaagae explained that during the trial, there were disputes of fact regarding the source of funds and his client provided documents of the origins and authenticity of the assets.

He also noted that the judge dealt with the assets broadly saying even if they were proceeds of crime, the State ought to have shown how each was related to crime and the judge taking note of that.

“It is possible that one could be the proceeds of crime while the others are not. The judge could have been object-specific and determined which ones can be forfeiture to the State and those not,” Ngakaagae said.

The State did not oppose the application. Seretse, who has had a back and forth with the State after being accused of being one of the ‘masterminds’ in the NPF scandal, lost his assets in September 2021 when Justice Motumise ruled that he should forfeit the properties as they were obtained through proceeds of crime.

Meanwhile, the 27 assets in question range from various residential properties, luxury vehicles, furniture, jewellery, agricultural and gym equipment. However, Seretse contends that specific assets namely the Weylandts furniture and fittings, gym equipment, and residential property in Gaborone West have been unjustly attributed to being the proceeds of criminal activity without evidence.