31 May 2022

Thabano Ramaja, Pelontle Moagabo, Mothusi Matomela, Thapelo Lekobe, all accused in the P8.5 million G4S armed robbery, will on June 20 know whether Village Court magistrate Mr Mareledi Dipate will grant them variation of their bail.

The state has opposed the application.

The first accused, Ramaja, wants his bail conditions relaxed from reporting two Fridays a month at Gaborone West police station to only once.

When presenting his case before court yesterday, he submitted that the current bail conditions were cumbersome, and restricted him from attending social and family activities.  

He argued further that since registering the case six months earlier the prosecution had made little progress, and therefore pleaded with the court to shelve the matter, and only call it when the prosecution was ready.

The third accused person, Mothusi Matomela said he wanted the P10 000 amount set for his bail as well as for his sureties reduced.

He complained the prosecution had been telling the court about a pending report from Bank of Botswana (BoB), while remaining mum on the general status of the case.

He submitted that to date he was not sure what he was being accused of as he was never furnished with the charge sheet.

Opposing Ramaja’s application, prosecutor Ms Daphne Gadise argued that current conditions were meant to closely monitor the accused. They were therefore reasonable and necessary.

She said bail conditions for Matomela were not similar to those of other accused persons as he was involved in another armed robbery at the time the police were looking for him for the matter at hand.

Given his propensity for committing crime, the bail conditions were necessary and reasonable, she argued.

She informed the court that the fifth accused person, Khumo Sakarea died in an encounter with the police while on bail.

Ms Gadise had earlier on told the court that the prosecution long requested BoB to provide a report that would help them to finalise investigations.

To that end, they had asked Broadhurst Police station commander to impress the urgency of the matter upon the bank.

The accused persons are in addition to the charge of armed robbery, facing those of unlawful possession of firearms and unlawful possession of ammunition.

They are alleged to have robbed, using guns, a G4S cash-in-transit vehicle, getting away with P8.5 million.

The robbery is said to have taken place at Red Dot complex, in Gaborone’s Block 6 location. ends