Two men who are residents of Old Naledi in Gaborone this Friday left the Urban Customary Court in tears after they were sentenced to five strokes on the bum for vandalizing the Gaborone City Council fence and staying illegally at the dumping site.
The two vagrants had been arrested by members of the Trojan Security Guards, next to Rive Walk in Gaborone.
Dimpo Kgaodi, 18, from Monare Ward in Ranaka, and Kagiso Motsewabeng, 22, from Goosebego Ward in Kanye, both pleaded guilty under the Rogues and Vagabonds statute after they were arrested on the 09/08/2006 next to the damping sites.
State Prosecutor from Urban Police Station, Constable Baitsani, told the court that the two accused stay at Old Naledi but they were found camping at the dumpsite. The other three accused are still at large.
He told the court that the accused either rob people in the bush or stay inside the dumping sites illegally. He asked the court to punish them so that their partners in crime can learn from them.
He told the court that at the time they were arrested, the accused failed to explain what they were doing in the bush by the time they were arrested.
He said police are not happy with the number of cases of robbery in the bushy area next to River Walk. He said the scavengers and criminals who wait in the bushes to rob people commit the crimes.
Dimpho pleaded with the court not to send him to prison because his father died when he was inside police cells while Kagiso asked the court not so send him to prison because his girlfriend was pregnant. An annoyed Kgosi Sebele told Kagiso that he was too young to talk to him about pregnancy and told him that he does not discuss such issues with young boys like Kagiso.
He sentenced each of them to five strokes on the bum and promised a stiff punishment next time.
