Former Gaborone Chief Magistrate and current Deputy Master and Registrar of the Lobatse High Court, Nelson Bopa, is on August 3 expected to pass a ruling in a case in which Francistown lawyer, Tiro Mothusi, who is facing fraud charges, wants to be allowed to lead new evidence in the case.
When making application for new evidence to be introduced, Tengo Rubadiri, who is representing Mothusi, said that the evidence they want to lead is a Mochudi Prison registry which will show that the state’s star witness, Akofang Moasetso, changed his evidence to help the state’s case after he was detained last December.
Apparently after detention, Moasetso gave contradictory evidence to the one he gave during the time he was giving evidence in chief.
Solomon Phadi, Deputy Director of Directorate of Public Prosecution, opposed the application saying it was frivolous and just a way of buying time by the defence as Moasetso has never denied that he was arrested.
Mothusi’s case was investigated by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) and in an ironic twist the DCEC has also been asked to investigate a case of fraud against Moasetso, their star witness.
Meanwhile, the DCEC is declining to comment on whether they will investigate a case in which Moasetso is alleged to have swindled Gift Julius, a prisoner serving a sentence for stock theft in Francistown Prison, of P6,000 on promise that he would help to get his appeal case heard in the High Court quickly. The matter, according to an affidavit prepared by Ookeditse Maphakwane on behalf Julius, was first reported to the DCEC in December last year, but the DCEC has not responded.
Earlier this year, the Director of DCEC, Tymon Katlholo, said that they were still studying the report to see if they could launch investigations on the matter and since then he has refused to comment on the issue. In the affidavit, Julius also made damning allegations that Moasetso had promised him that the DCEC would refund him the P6000 he had been defrauded.
Katlholo has, however, denied this saying they can not pay for something they do not know anything about.
Moasetso, who is currently based at Serowe Prison, is meanwhile still on duty.
