The six accused persons, some of whom being involved in the infamous case of illegal sale of state land, last week pleaded not guilty before Francistown Chief Magistrate, Mokwadi Gabanagae.
They were being accused of attempting to bribe a Directorate of Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC)  officer.
The particulars of the offence are that the accused, Moloko Ursula Mokgokong, a Principal State Counsel at the Attorney General Chambers, Emmanuel Richard Mutasa, Reuben Tshule, Julius Selemogwe, Thapelo Duna and Keolopile Simane on the 20th of January 2010 attempted to bribe Morutuludi Tshwarelo, a DCEC officer, by seeking to influence his conduct with a sum of P20 000 to steal a docket from DCEC offices in which the first four accused were being investigated.
Giving sworn evidence during trial, the DCEC officer, Tshwarelo, told court that sometimes in December 2009 he was approached by one lady who identified himself as Florence. He said that the lady told him that she needs his assistance to steal and destroy a docket from the DCEC office involving her cousin who is under the DCEC investigation and pledged P20 000 as a favour in return.
“She decided not to reveal the name of the said cousin, but only mentioned that the investigation on her cousin is done by one Matshameko, who is our colleague,” the officer told court.
He said that he then told her that he would have to think about it, and then went on to tell his colleagues about the issue. He added that they then agreed with colleagues at the DCEC offices to make an official report about the issue so that they could send it to the DCEC Director to give them a go ahead on the investigation.
The DCEC officer went on to state that after sometime, Florence came to her again with a different story, saying that she was sent to the officer by Moloko Ursula Mokgokong, Emmanuel Mutasa, Reuben Tshule and Julius Selemogwe, who wanted their dockets stolen from the DCEC office and destroyed.
“I was then approached by another gentleman by the name of Thapelo who came and told me about the issue and mentioned that he was also sent by the accused to give me P4 000 as part of ┬áthe P20 000 bribe which I took as part of the investigation,” court heard.
The P4 000 was produced in court as evidence.
The state is represented Merapelo Mokgosi assisted by Tebogo Masala from the Directorate of Public Prosecution while the defense is represented by Unoda Mack of Mack Sehuma Attorneys, Keitshekile Sechele of KK Sechele Attorneys and Tshekiso Tshekiso of Ditiro and Jani Attorneys.
The trial has been scheduled to continue next year on the 14 of February as the state will be calling more witnesses.
