Former Botswana Defence Force (BDF) deputy commander ,Otisitswe Tiroyamodimo says his ambition of becoming Commander after Tebogo Masire was destroyed by a disk joker(music DJ)who gave a false testimony against him in his marathon drunken driving case. In an interview outside court, after his conviction of drunken driving was overturned by Justice Michael Mothobi Tiroyamodimo said his life has been shattered by a DJ. “I’m told the witness is a DJ and the magistrate has used his false evidence to destroy my ambition of one time becoming the commander of the army.
“I resigned from BDF due to pressure of this drunken driving case. Maybe President Ian Khama could have appointed me after Masire retired because I was his immediate subordinate at BDF,” said Tiroyamodimo. He added that “I was not happy with the lower court because they disregard my homeboy’s evidence who it was alleged I hit his car only to rely on the evidence of a DJ. My life had not been easy because I never got a job because they needed a police clearance report that showed that I have never committed any offence and this case has really affected my life.” According to court documents before the high court, Samuel Boykey Badukanye was one of the two key witnesses that the magistrate used to make a determination on their evidence before court.
The other witness was Gaebewe Ramolemana who’s vehicle Toyota Hilux was allegedly damaged by Major General Tiroyamodimo. There were five witnesses but the magistrate only relied on the evidence given by Badukanye who Tiroyamodimo claims is a local DJ. Court records reveal that the magistrate relied heavily on his evidence as opposed to the evidence of the owner of the damaged car. In her findings the magistrate said he preferred the findings of Badukanye because he was clear and was present when the accident happen as opposed to the owner of the affected car; she said Ramolemana may have a reason of protecting Tiroyamodimo because they are from the same village and that both of them were smelling alcohol and they even refused to take alcohol tests. Ramolemana’s evidence was that Tiroyamodimo was not the driver of the car that hit his car during collision.
The police were not of any assistance to the magistrate as they only relied on Badukanye who was said to be behind Ramolemana when the accident occurred just by the SSKB turn over along the Gaborone\Molepolole road in Mogoditshane. In his judgment on the appeal case at the High court, Judge Michael Mothonibi quashed and set aside both the conviction and sentence of Tiroyamodimo and his co-accused. He said the magistrate was wrong to rely on the evidence of a witness who was contradicting himself and left out the evidence of the affected person, Ramolemana whose vehicle was damaged. He then ordered the state to return Tiroyamodimo’s drivers license and clear him from his drunken driving offence.
