THAMAGA: The sound of a condemned prisoner as his life is cut short sent shivers down the Polly Tsapoga?s spine.
Each day, Tsapoga?s mind was filled with fear at the thought of becoming yet another statistic of Botswana?s capital punishment regime.
For four years, 32-year-old Tsapoga underwent emotional torture behind bars, always bound in chains ? punishment for a crime that he did not commit.
He is angry at what he calls the imperfections of Botswana?s judicial system. He wasted four years at Gaborone?s maximum-security prison because he was a murder suspect.
The journey to prison began with a Friday night outing with friends on November 1, 2002.
The rendezvous was a popular drinking place in Thamaga.
As the drinking went on, a fight broke out between some men, said to be from Old Naledi in Gaborone, and one of Tsapoga?s friends.
The fight was apparently over the use of the bar?s jukebox.
?I didn?t want to meddle in their squabbles. The fight got very ugly and it involved knives and bottles,? Tsapoga tells FPN. ?I decided to get away from it all and go home. Some guys from Thamaga also got involved, and one of the men from Old Naledi was killed on the spot.?
The following morning, he went to Gaborone only to return late at night to the shocking news that the police were looking for him all over the village in connection with the previous night?s murder.
?Throughout that night, I could not sleep. I wished that this could turn out to be a nightmare that I would wake up from,? he says.
As it turned out, the nightmare was only beginning. While taking a bath in the morning, preparing to pay a call on the police, the bathroom door was forced open. He was handcuffed, naked and still inside the bath.
?They didn?t allow me to dress myself as they suspected I would put up a fight. So they dressed me carelessly with my face foaming with soap. They took me to the police station where I was interrogated by some men from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID),? he says.
He denied involvement in the murder, but the detectives obviously disbelieved him. Amid beatings, he was shouted at to ?tell the truth?.
Later, four other men were also arrested in connection with the same incident. They became co-accused in the murder. For two years, they appeared for mention at the Molepolole Magistrate?s Court.
The trial started in October 2006, and, last month, the High Court acquitted the five men because there was no evidence that linked them to the crime.
Tsapoga says even though he is happy that at last he is a free man, and reunited with the mother of his seven-year-old son, he is angry at the treatment meted out to him.
He is still lost for words how a man can spend four years in prison purely on the basis of unproven suspicions.
He sees his incarceration as a violation of a constitutional provision that one is innocent until proven guilty.
He charges that, in Botswana, there is a class of people that is presumed guilty until they prove their innocence.
?Where was my constitutional right to presumption of innocence during those four years that I was detained? Where was my constitutional right to presumption of innocence when the police embarrassed me in front of my family? Where was my constitutional right to freedom as an innocent man when I was always bound in chains behind bars?? he asks.
Tsapoga recalls the many bail applications that failed because it was feared that he might skip the country and run away for good.
He finds something awfully wrong with a system that was so keen to keep him behind bars, yet thought nothing about the full year in which there was no word from anybody about progress on his trial dates.
?The only people who communicated anything to me were often the visitors who always emphasised that the state had spread speculation that they had a watertight case against me and I was almost certain to lose it,? he says.
Before detention, Tsapoga was self-employed.
He had a music system that he rented out to weddings, parties and other festivities in and around Thamaga.
Since coming out of jail, many people avoid him because in their minds he has been judged ? he is a killer.
?I used to provide for my family very well, but when I was released from prison, my equipment was nowhere to be found and I am starting life afresh,? he explains.
Tsapoga decries the loss of integrity and self-esteem as a result of his prison experience. He recalls that even on the day of his release, he lacked the confidence to mingle with people ? including close relatives and childhood friends.
He was bitter, and had concluded that they would also conspire to ostracise and subject him to discrimination.
The process of rebuilding his life comes one day at a time, as he gathers the confidence to venture into the village and regain a sense of purpose. He knows that there is not much he can do about the stigma; he will forever be the man who stood trial for murder.
To him, if there is any consolation, it?s that he did not become the hangman?s statistic. (FPN)
