18 Mar 2015

Gumare Magistrate Court has found two men of Beetsha in Ngamiland guilty of rape.

The duo appeared before Magistrate Mmoloki Sibanda recently and their sentencing was referred to the High Court. The accused, John Kapinga and Kegaisamang Mathaise, both 22 years pleaded not guilty and would be remanded in custody while their files were taken to the High Court.

The facts of the matter were that on the night of April 4, 2013, Kapinga bought the victim beer in Beetsha and asked her to go home with him, while Mathaise followed them. When they got home, Kapinga raped her and beat her up and then Mathaise did the same. They did this to the woman all night long until she escaped in the morning and reported the matter to the police.

In mitigation, Kapinga said the woman drank his beer and Mathaise said the woman was his girlfriend. Kapinga also told the court that he was taking care of his grandmother and cattle. Magistrate Sibanda said the number of rape cases wason the rise in the Okavango Sub-district, therefore it was up to the court to punish the accused accordingly so that this could send the message to others.

He said that even though the first accused had bought drinks for the woman, it did not give him the right to rape her and also no one was entitled to rape anyone even if they were their girlfriends. Meanwhile another man, Kemoneilwe Malepe (25) was sentenced to 10 years for two counts of rape.

Malepe reportedly on August24, 2014 raped one woman and also within a month of doing this raped yet another woman in Botlhatlogo ward on the 27 September, 2014. In another case, Gaolatlhe Yeya from Etsha 13 village was sentenced to five years imprisonment for stealing livestock.

Two other men, Isaiah Kangura and Monei Tukamone were each sentenced each to pay P1500 and three strokes for unlawful possession of game meat. The two men both from Etsha 1 village were on August 22, 2013, caught in possession of parts of zebra meat and believed to have killed it without a license.

Magistrate Sibanda said he was worried about similar cases of killing game animals in the Okavango region, indicating that they are depleting game animals.

He said these animals are tourist attractions and warned them to stop doing this. The two men are to pay the money before the April 03, 2015, and failure to do so will mean imprisonment for a period of six months. ENDS