06 Feb 2024

The matter in which a 59-year-old man, Samuel Selolwane, is accused of raping a 13 year girl has been postponed to allow the prosecution to harmonize its papers.

Selolwane, who has petitioned the high court requesting bail, was supposed to hear his fate on Monday, but due to some confusion in the papers filed before Justice Barnabas Nyamadzabo, the case was instead set for Thursday this week.

Praying for a postponement, state prosecutor, Bame Mogami indicated that on Friday she was informed of only one petition before the court by Selolwane, but said that she was surprised to learn that his co-accused persons have also filed their petition.

‘With that, we will need some time to file proper papers that reflect all the accused persons,” she said.

However, defence lawyer, Dr Obonye Jonas, argued that there was no how the addition of other accused persons in the petition could inconvenience the prosecution.

“We are here to argue for bail, and all that the prosecution has to do is to put the investigating officer in the stand to motivate their case,” he said.

Dr Jonas said in any case, investigations into the matter were different as the accused persons have been hit with different charges, thereby making it easier to only argue the petition for Selolwane.

In his ruling, Justice Nyamadzabo indicated that the fact that two petitions were filed on different dates and allotted different case numbers made them two different cases, therefore they could not be argued together.

“The fact that matter has been assigned one investigating officer, or that they arose from the same criminal activity does not mean that they can be treated as one case,” he said.

Justice Nyamadzabo therefore agreed with the prayers of the prosecution to give them time to file separate papers to avoid any confusion.

The defence however, offered to consolidate the two petitions, which will save the prosecution the task of filing afresh.

Selolwane is accused of having carnal knowledge of a 13-year old girl at Oodi on January 26. Selolwane was denied bail by the Broadhurst Magistrate Court, hence his approach of the high court.

The victim’s mother and her friend have been charged with corrupting a minor into prostitution. Ends