17 Aug 2016

Gaborone Village chief magistrate Mr Mompati Taolo on Tuesday (August 16) postponed a case in which two South African nationals are charged with promoting human trafficking to August 30.

This was after both the accused, who are in custody at Gaborone Prison, and the prosecution failed to turn up in time. Normally detainees are collected from prison early in the morning but the process of removal normally takes some time, especially from the men's section.

However the second accused's lawyer Mr Friday Leburu was present and did not object to the postponement of the matter to a later date. 

It was envisaged that he will motivate fresh bail application on behalf of his client, while the first accused who is self-represented was to make his too.

The botched bail application which was highly expected to be at the centre stage on Tuesday's appearance was informed by the failed bid by the two to convince the court to drop charges against them.

This was after the prosecution recently requested that their trial which was set for August 2, 2016 be put on hold because there is a pending similar case before the High Court to determine whether such cases could be heard by lower courts or not.

Advancing his reasons for not granting the wish, chief magistrate Taolo concurred with prosecutor from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Ms Priscilla Israel that while it means that the accused will have to stay in prison for a little longer, it would be misguided to go on with the trial and later receive communication that such cases should be trialed at the High Court.

He further said looking at the fact that the accused were arrested in March this year, the investigation was relatively speedy and was therefore optimistic that the September 19, 2016 High Court ruling on the similar matter will pave way for successful completion of the matter.

The accused in the case are Hanamantsi Jakobus Lekena of Masacani Mega, Ramatlabama in South Africa, who works as a cleaner at Palms Hotel and Antoinette Relebohile Nthoba of Pimville Zone 5 in Soweto, South Africa who is a butchery operator. They are facing a single count of Promoting Trafficking in Persons.

According to the charge sheet, the two accused, Lekena and Nthoba on or about March 04, 2016 at Tlokweng Border acting together in concert promoted the trafficking of two females aged 20 and 23 years from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to Gaborone in transit to South Africa by providing recruitment materials, transportation and transfer facilities. 

In the meantime the alleged human trafficking victims are said to be housed somewhere in  town pending the finalisation of the trial. ENDS