A South African National, Skhumbuzo Mlotsa, who was sentenced to 11 years in jail last year by a Village Magistrate for robbing Coin Botswana at Sir Seretse Khama Airport, appeared before the Lobatse High Court appealing his conviction and sentence.
 
The case has been postponed to 18 March as the State was not in a position to continue with the matter.
 
State Prosecutor Lesedi Seloka asked the Court to postpone the matter to allow them to study some documents.
 
“We just received some additional grounds of appeal from Mlotsa’s attorney; initially he was not represented so we still need time to study them,” said Seloka.
 
Mlotsa has appealed to the High Court on grounds that the Magistrate who was handling the case had misdirected herself on relying on hearsay evidence in her judgment which has led to Mlotsa being sent to jail.
 
He further contends that the Court relied on three witnesses, Amos Nkomo, Emmanual Maphosa and Tebogo Mafisa whose evidence was not tested by cross examination during trial and that Mlotsa was denied the opportunity to do so and that the confession by another accused is not admissible.
Mlotsa was sentenced to 11 years for robbing Coin Botswana of P5 million in foreign currency at the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport in 2005.
 
The appeal case will be heard before Justice Michael Leburu on the March 18 this year.
