15 Dec 2014

Gaborone Village chief magistrate, Ms Linah 
Oahile-Mokibe has granted two alleged car racketeers bail while 
their counterpart will remain incarcerated because he has already applied for 
it before Gaborone High Court.

The accused in the matter are Oteng Pule, Modisaotsile Rentse and Thabo Seswai, who
 are accused of stealing two new government vehicles, being a Ford Ranger 2.2 and a Toyota Land Cruiser vans on or about July 30, 2014 at Glen Valley BDF
Camp.

The first 
and second accused are the ones who have been released while their co-accused,
 Seswai is still in custody and will appear before Gaborone High Court judge Singh
 Walia on Friday, December 11 for his bail hearing.

The first
 accused Pule, is represented by attorney Farayi Enock Mawhite of Ramalepa
 Attorneys, while Rentse is self-represented but managed to cajole the court to 
also grant him bail without imposing cash bail as he is cash-strapped.

Earlier on,
 attorney Mawhite told magistrate Oahile-Mokibe that though the law provides 
that the accused should at least pay cash bail equaling half of the price of 
the vehicles, she should use her digression on this regard since the two, who 
were employees of Gaborone Central Transport Organisation (CTO) have just been 
fired from their work.

Mr Mawhite also
furnished the court with copies of their dismissal letters. Pule was employed
as senior transport assistant, while Rentse was principal transport planner. 
Seswai also known as Killer is self-employed and is represented by Mr Friday Leburu and Mr Olihile Mantswe.

Conditions
of bail are that; they should bond themselves with half of the value of the 
vehicles, surrender their passports or travelling documents to police and
report once a fortnight at serious crime squad offices.

The Ford Ranger is
 valued at P243 635.84 while the Land Cruiser is valued at P357 403.

In her
 opening submission, prosecutor Mrs Khumoetsile Tirelo from Directorate of 
Public Prosecutions (DPP) said they were not opposed to granting first and 
second accused conditional bail while the third accused should remain
 incarcerated because he has already applied for bail at the High Court, which
is a higher authority and as such the two applications could not run parallel.

Though she 
said she did not want to lead evidence from the bar, she said investigations
 have revealed that Seswai has been communicating with a cellphone from prison 
with some people outside, a move which she said will definitely compromise his 
chances of getting bail which they will certainly oppose.

Meanwhile, 
investigating officer, assistant superintendent Joshua Ntau of Serious Crime
 Squad is wrapping investigations which took him to as far as Swaziland and
 South Africa. The matter will come before court again on December 24,
 2014. ENDS