Fake 'Omang' cases on the rise
Lebogang Mosikare | Tuesday February 7, 2023 06:00
One such case went before Magistrate Wanani Ngebani on Friday where a 36-year-old Zimbabwean Lindiwe Ncube appeared.
Ncube is charged with "uttering a false document (Omang) to an official" of the Department of Civil and National Registration in the Ministry of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs on January 13 at Ntshe House. When she appeared in court, the State made an application for her remand in custody because investigations are still at an initial stage.
Despite her spirited attempt to be granted bail, Ngebani agreed with the state that Ncube should be remanded in custody. Ngebani said: “I have noted that investigations in this matter are still at their initial stages, particularly that your accomplice has not been arrested. If I grant you bail, you might meet with the accomplice.
Therefore, your bail is denied until February 21 when you will appear in court for a status hearing.” Before being denied bail, Ncube told the court that she was incarcerated at the Francistown Centre for Illegal Immigrants for two weeks.
She also pleaded with the court to grant her bail saying she has two minor children whom she left with a friend and did not know how they are surviving in her absence.
Last year, Magistrate Mareledi Dipate revoked the citizenship of a Zimbabwean, Bernard Nvundla who had obtained Omang illegally. When revoking Nvundla's citizenship, Dipate clarified the inherent risks associated with foreigners who obtain national documents illegally.
He bemoaned that cases of foreigners who obtained Omang through fraudulent means were prevalent in the country. The magistrate decried that foreigners who obtained Omang through fraudulent means were competing with Batswana for government services and assistance that were solely the preserve of Batswana.
Obtaining Omang fraudulently, Dipate added, was a serious offence because the concerned fraudsters may also decide on leaders of the country since they can use the document to register for elections and thereafter vote. Nvundla, who later married a local woman, was arrested when he tried to renew his Omang in Maun where he was working at NTT Nissan.
He subsequently managed to make a Botswana passport with the aid of the Omang he had obtained illegally.