A student at the University of Botswana this Friday left the Urban Customary Court in tears after he was sentenced to eight strokes on the bare bottom for drinking beer in a prohibited area and for assaulting a Maruapula Filling Station cashier.
Obert Poloko, 23, from Nzinge Ward in Maitengwe was arrested on October 5, 2006, an hour after he went into the Maruapula Filling Station to buy a packet of biscuits but was too impatient to wait in the queue. He lost his temper and assaulted a cashier with the same packet of biscuits he had gone to buy.
According to the evidence given before Urban Customary Court President Kgosi Dikwalo Monametsi, State Prosecutor Constable Thatayaone Mabhangu said Poloko assaulted Granny Mpikiwa with a packet of biscuits. He then went to a nearby bar and bought some beer, which he drank at the filling station, a prohibited area.
Poloko was taken to the Central Police Station with the beer he was drinking and he pleaded guilty to the two counts.
In his mitigation, Poloko asked the court not to send him to prison because he was still a student. He also told the court that his girlfriend was three months pregnant.
Kgosi Monametsi advised Poloko to concentrate on studying, not to go around impregnating girls since he was still a student.
He sentenced him to eight strokes on the bum, four for each count.
