01 Dec 2016

 A 22-year-old South African national was sentenced to two years in prison plus an additional P1 500 fine after he was found guilty for unlawful possession of dagga by the Lobatse magistrate recently.

The convicted person Revelation Masondo from Johannesburg was arrested on October 22 at the pioneer boarder gate in Lobatse, after being found in possession of a suspected habit forming substance believed to be dagga weighing about 8.9kg.

The convicted person is reported to have been driving a truck when he was stopped by a detective officer who was on duty at the border and conducted a search in the truck Masondo was driving.

The detective officer is said to have noticed a black plastic wrapping behind the driver’s seat containing 16 small wrappings of beige sellotape, and the second plastic  wrapping  containing 17 small wrappings of beige sellotape, and the third plastic wrapping which contained two ball wrappings.

All these sellotape wrappings contained a green substance suspected to be dagga which was then taken to the forensic laboratory for testing and was confirmed to be dagga.

After he was convicted the prosecution officer, Sub-Inspector Legodile Sennafela of Lobatse police station asked the magistrate to treat him as a first offender as he had no previous  convictions.

During mitigation the accused’s lawyer Mr Digangwa of Digangwa attorneys asked the magistrate to wholly suspend the sentence and pay money instead as he was a first offender and a law abiding citizen in his native country.

He also said the accused’s girlfriend is pregnant and expected to give birth in three months and therefore giving him a custodian sentence will deny the child the right of being raised by both parents.

When delivering her judgement magistrate, Ms Galaletsang Ramokate said she was guided by the law in giving out the sentence.ENDS