05 Feb 2015

Magistrate Keneilwe Keobake has given bail to two civil and national registration officers in Molepolole who are facing corruption charges.

The duo allegedly received a P1 000 bribe from a certain Nkorima, who is still at large, to process Omang card and birth certificate for a 32-year-old Zimbabwean, Wilba Brother, through the help of his 32-year-old wife, Martha Kwadiba, of Morwa ward in Molepolole.

The two accused officers are Thabo Rakwela and Babui Simane aged 41 and 45 respectively. They each faced two counts of corruption.

Defense attorney, Mr Enock Mazonde called for the presiding magistrate to grant his client, Simane, bail arguing that it would be unfair to detain the accused just because the police were failing to apprehend Nkorima.

Attorney Mazonde said bail was the right of his client and it should therefore not depend on the prosecution or the investigating officer. He said it would be wrong to delay court from acting on the accused’s bail when it was not made aware of who Nkorima was, whether a suspect or a witness.

“The prosecution failed decimally to show that the accused will not adhere to bail conditions by interfering with either prosecution witnesses or fail to attend mentions as per the set bail conditions,” he argued.  

Attorney Maswabi Maswabi of Sebego Attorneys representing Rakwela pleaded with the court to grant his client bail saying the information used by the prosecution to deny the second accused from being allowed bail was based on hearsay, noting that his client was an officer staying in Molepolole who could not skip bail.

The two accused persons would appear again for mention in February 24. They were released on conditional bail. 

They would report to Molepolole police every Tuesday, not interfere with prosecutions’ potential witnesses, they each paid P1 500 and two sureties who will each bind with P1 500 Brother and Kwadiba were scheduled to appear on February 5 before Molepolole magistrate court.

Meanwhile a 41-year-old Oliver Mogotsi of Botshabelo ward in Molepolole has been denied bail for a rape case, committed in August last year at Lekgwapheng ward.  Mogotsi had wanted the court to grant him bail arguing that he was unlawfully detained because none of the prosecution witnesses implicated him in their statements.

The prosecutor Inspector Uyapo Koketso pleaded with the court not to take chance granting the accused bail arguing that he was a perpetual wrong doer faced with two other similar cases.

In another case Chief Magistrate Ng’andu sentenced a 27-year-old Molepolole woman Faith Mokgethi to 18 months in prison for breaking into a shop stealing goods worth around P2 000 at Paragon Store in Molepolole sometime in September last year. 

Twelve months of the sentence were suspended conditionally for two years. Mokgethi was jointly charged with Oganeditse Tshweneyame also aged 27 of Ntlolengwae, who is still awaiting trial as he did not plead guilty to the charge.

When sentencing the accused, Ms Ng’andu said he was compelled to impose a stiffer sentence looking at the fact that the accused was not a stranger to crime as she was not a first offender.

Ms Ng’andu indicated to court that she was bound to treat the accused as a first offender because the offence committed was not related to the current one

She further highlighted that she would as well consider the accused’s mitigating factors and that she was remorseful something that was shown by her pleading of guilty. ENDS