06 Jul 2023

The Court of Appeal has postponed an appeal in which Sarudzai Mujee is charged with a single count of trafficking in persons contrary to section 9 (1) of the Anti-Human Trafficking Act.

The bench of Justices Tebogo Tau, Mercy Garekwe and Leatile Dambe postponed the appeal to give the defence a chance to properly inform itself and prepare for the matter.

This came after the defence lawyer, Mr Letlhogonolo Makgane told the court that the accused had already completed her jail term and deported to her native country. 

The revelation led Judge Justice Tau calling the matter academic and that it would not serve any purpose to the accused should the court continue with the matter.

However, Mr Makgane argued that it was vital that the court determined the matter even in the absence of Mujee so as to clear her name.

“The appeal was both for the judgement and the sentence, but now with the sentence having been fully served, the court can still go ahead and deal with the conviction because even if she has served her sentence, the conviction still sticks to her. So it is important for the court to clear her name,” he argued.

Mr Makgane said that he only learnt about the deportation of his client late, hence his failure to notify the prosecution.

Mujee was sentenced to 10 years behind bars in 2021, after she allegedly transported a 16-year old girl from Zimbabwe into Botswana through an ungazetted point where she harbored her between October 2015 and January 2016.

During that period the young girl was allegedly used as a commercial sex worker. 

The accused had been held in custody since 2016 and the period was subtracted from her imprisonment term. In a similar matter, the bench struck off the roll, the matter involving Given Massawe, who was also appealing his conviction, a 10 year sentence for human trafficking. 

The bench indicated that the matter was not properly brought before the court. Massawe allegedly smuggled his victim into Botswana at a tender age of 14 in 2015, where he engaged her as a house maid. After going for four months without paying her, she allegedly went out of the house, where she was concealed, upon which she was apprehended by the police for lack of proper documents.

It was only on further investigations that it was found that she was tricked into to coming to Botswana from Tanzania. The appeal is expected to be brought back before the Court of Appeal during the October session.ENDS