06 Sep 2020

Prosecution in the Choppies Meriting armed robbery case has been urged to speed up investigations.

Making a ruling to further remand five accused persons in the case, Francistown Chief Magistrate Faith Dlamini-Ngandu, said a lot of time had been lost because parties involved were either quarantined or failed to get permits to travel to other places to interview witnesses or secure exhibits. 

In the dock is Derick Masukula, Mogomotsi Thupane, Thato Moatshe, Ronnie Sanana and Ronald Dipholo.

The five allegedly entered the Choppies Meriting store at around 8:30pm hiding their faces and threatened staff members with something similar to a gun.

However, Magistrate Dlamini-Ngandu acceded to the prosecutions’ plea that the five accused be remanded in custody to enable the state to finish investigations. 

She said the evidence brought by the state for further remand of the accused outweighed that of the defence.

The magistrate said it appeared that there were ‘loose ends that need to be tightened’ and giving the accused freedom at this stage would jeopardise the case. 

Earlier on, defence lawyer, Mr Kagiso Jani asked the court to grant Masukula and Moatshe conditional bail because there was a change of circumstances from their previous appearance. 

He submitted that because Masukula and Moatshe’s bank accounts were frozen, there was no reason to keep them in jail because they could not temper with such accounts. 

Regarding Sanana, Mr Jani submitted that he must also be admitted to bail because the murder charge, which the state alleged in the previous appearance did not exist. 

“I, therefore, ask the court to assess these people individually and consider giving them bail,” the lawyer submitted. 

Dipholo, who was self-represented, asked the court to grant him bail because he was not a flight risk. 

He submitted that his remand would be pre-judiciary because he wanted to sell some of his livestock in order to look for a legal representative. 

Dipholo also said the situation at the prison was disastrous because it was overcrowded while prisoners were being offered only one blanked, despite chilly conditions. 

Mogomotsi Thupane, who is self-represented did not make any application for bail.

State prosecutor, Ms Sesafeleng Dijeng, submitted that the investigating team was still looking for an individual who sold Masukula and Moatshe a vehicle, which the state suspected that they bought using proceeds of the crime. 

She explained that the investigating officer failed to locate such a person(s) because of lockdown in the greater Gaborone at the time of investigating. 

In addition, Ms Dijeng explained to the court that the investigating officer was himself subjected to quarantine because he had travelled to a place, which was under lockdown and that there were possibilities that he might have been exposed to the coronavirus. 

She further submitted that the accused persons were also quarantined because they were arrested in greater Gaborone that was under lockdown.

However, she submitted to the court that because all the parties (accused persons and investigating officer) were no longer quarantined, the state would carry out the processes to finish investigations without any hindrance.  

The five, who are alleged to have walked away with close to P190 000, would appear again on September 17 where the prosecution would be expected to update the court in its investigations.ends