10 Aug 2021

 Good cooperation and a quick plea of guilt helped Melvin Josephs and Bernard Kooreeng get minimum sentence in a stock theft case on Tuesday. 

The duo, who were accused of stealing 11 Kalahari stud goats belonging to a Hennie Herbst at Machana near Jwaneng in June, pleaded guilty as soon as the charge was put before them, which Magistrate Mpho Setshegetso noted in passing sentence, as one of the factors he looked at. 

“The court also considered the fact that both of you are first offenders and you still have a chance at rehabilitation looking at your age and that you did not derive any benefits from the committal of the crime as all the goats were recovered by the police through your cooperation, although you had mutilated them,” he said. 

Mr Setshegetso however, raised a need to be stern with stock theft offenders as such cases were on the rise, despite harsh sentences meted out. 

He said that the law dictated that although punishments should not be too much when weighed against the offence or passed with emotions, they should also not be too light to serve any purpose. 

In passing the sentence, he said that the court also considered the fact that livestock was the lifeblood of many Batswana. 

The magistrate said that the Stock theft Act also prescribed a sentence of a minimum of five years or a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment for first offenders.

He slapped the duo with a five-year jail term backdated to the time they were held in custody. 

He also ordered that the exhibits be handed back to the owner. ends