14 Apr 2014

Three men accused of a single count of robbery involving large sums of money, jewelry and gold coins have applied for the release of their vehicles which were impounded by the police when they were arrested.

The trio made their application on April 10 during their routine mention before Senior Magistrate Goodwill Makofi of the Village Magistrate Court, who had just taken over the case from the outgoing magistrate, Ms Alice Rammapudi.

The accused are Modulasetilo Seretse, Moses Ketembele and Mhina Mhina. The fourth suspect in the matter had not yet been arrested and was believed to have jumped the border to one of the neighbouring countries.

However, the state prosecutor from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mr Moakofi Seilane, said he was not ready to respond to the accused’s’ demand. He therefore requested the court to give him time to consult the investigating officer so that he could give a reasonable response.

The accused had also applied to be given all documents to prepare their defence. Ketembele and Mhina also requested the court to allow them to report to Tlokweng police station as they stayed in Tlokweng.

Currently, they were required to report at Gaborone West police station twice a week, something which they said is cumbersome for them. In addition Mhina requested that he be given his cellphone and his passport that were seized by the police during his arrest.

Seretse was represented by Mr Leonard Mosepele, who argued for the release of the accused’s vehicle. The other men were previously represented by Mr Shame Taimu but not anymore; they did not have a defence lawyer.

Previously, the trio’s lawyers successfully argued that their clients could not pay cash bail of P10 000 as they did not have the money more so that the first and the second accused were not employed while the third accused had just found  work beginning of this year.

They are currently on a P10 000 bail bond with two sureties each who have bonded themselves with P5 000 each. Ketembele, on the other hand, who is a foreigner, has surrendered his travelling documents with the police.

The prosecution says the three men violently  robbed one, Pogiso Matlhare, in Phase IV,  Gaborone,  the sum of P450 000, R42 000, jewelry worth P85 000 and three gold coins, whose value was not yet known to the prosecution.

Meanwhile, Senior Magistrate Makofi ordered the prosecution to have served the defence with documents by April 29 so that they could prepare for their case. ENDS