13 Jul 2020

Tsabong magistrate, Ms Gofaone Mosweu on July 10 sentenced a 33-year-old Lehututu woman to two years imprisonment for fraudulently presenting a false Early Childhood Development certificate purporting it to be her educational qualification  certificate.

Presenting on the matter, the state prosecutor, Ms Lucy Dinake told the court that Gomolemo Mantle was a first offender and she was initially employed as a temporary early childhood teacher by the Ministry of Basic Education working in Kang.

She narrated that after her provisional employment, an opportunity for all temporary employees to be employed on a permanent and pensionable basis came in 2018 and so they were requested to submit early childhood preschool teachers training certificates for possible permanent and pensionable employment.

Mantle then presented a forged certificate on August the 14, 2018 to Kgalagadi regional basic education office in Tsabong.

She made a photocopy of another candidate’s certificate, who had asked her to submit on her behalf as she was ill.  

It is said that Mantle then made a copy on which she replaced the name of the other candidate with hers.

The forgery was noticed by the human resource section in Tsabong upon realising that the numbers on the two certificate copies were the same. That is when the matter was brought to Tsabong police, who then started investigations.

The state prosecutor further told the court that the police investigations verified that the submitted copy of Early Childhood Development Certificate was indeed not authentic.

Further, the investigations turned out that the accused had pursued Early Childhood Development course at Gaborone University College of Law and Professional Studies, but did not complete her studies.

In her defence, Mantle admitted guilty to the offence and pleaded for the court to be lenient on her.

In her plea, she advanced reasons that she had a three-month old baby, who she had left with her ailing mother.

She said she committed the offence because she was unemployed and needed to get out of poverty.

When giving her final verdict on the matter, Magistrate Mosweu said the court had taken into consideration reasons advanced by the accused.

The magistrate sentenced the accused to two years in prison wholly suspended, provided she does not commit a similar offence within two years. ENDS