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Kgosikwena Sebele hopeful to be freed
 by Mpho Keleboge
12-07-2012
Former Bakwena’s Regent Paramount Chief Kgosikwena Sebele hopes the Court of Appeal will release him from prison after serving two and half years for stealing a billy goat belonging to Mhiko Gabatlale of Sojwe in 2009.
Sebele was slapped with a four-year jail term in February 2010 following the conviction.
A year later that sentence was increased by a year after Justice Ian Kirby of Lobatse High Court dismissed his appeal and gave him a mandatory stock theft minimum sentence of 5 years.
Sebele was then rescued by High Court Judge Lot Moroka when he granted him leave to appeal to the Court Of appeal.
Appearing before a panel of three Court of Appeal judges in Gaborone, his lawyer, Kgosiitsile Ngakaagae, made it clear that Kirby’s decision to sentence Sebele to five years without balancing the merits and demerits of all the witnesses who testified before the magistrate was wanting.
Ngakaagae said the judge could have found whether the state had been able to prove fraudulent intent to steal but the judge’s findings failed to anchor any evidence on this.
He noted that in all the witnesses the judge relied on, they failed to demonstrate the identity of the billy goat and urged the court to discharge Sebele.
In his submission state prosecutor Moseweu Ditlodi urged the court to maintain the conviction and sentence as the state had already proved its case.
Judgment will be passed on July 27th 2012.
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