Sekerese acquitted after begging Boko for pardon
Larona Makhaiza | Tuesday September 8, 2026 10:24
The Francistown High Court quashed his defilement conviction on September 3 and ordered his immediate release.
Sekerese, who was serving a 10-year sentence and had asked Boko to remit the remaining four years, no longer needs presidential clemency.
It comes after Judge Keborapele Moesi found serious flaws in the reasoning that led to his conviction.
The court also cleared the way for Sekerese to walk free, whilst he maintains that his separate P4.5 million claim against the State over an alleged prison assault will continue.
He had made an appeal before the higher court to overturn the conviction made by Selebi-Phikwe Magistrate’s Court on January 24, 2024, on a single count of defilement.
Sekerese was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison and appealed the sentence, outlining that he was wrongfully incarcerated for the offence without due diligence undertaken.
“The learned magistrate misdirected herself in fact by finding that the State had proven the charge against the appellant (Sekerese) beyond reasonable doubt notwithstanding that the evidence on record did not support such a conclusion,” he advanced reasons.
On that ground, the appellant said the magistrate erroneously erred in delivering the conviction for defilement.
“The learned magistrate erred in fact by failing to give due and adequate consideration to material mitigating factors and special extenuating circumstances when imposing sentence on the appellant,” Sekerese said.
When delivering a judgment on the appeal, Judge Moesi said it was quite dubious how the magistrate arrived at the conviction of Sekerese looking at the facts before him.
“There were some aspects of the judgment of the trial court whereby the analysis of the pertinent evidence which was undertaken and the conclusions which were arrived at are seriously questionable, particularly and primarily the inference which was drawn by the court a quo to the effect that the appellant must have known from the fact that the complainant had on a school uniform that she was underage,” Judge Moesi said.
He further said the State was unable to prove beyond reasonable doubt from the inferences made that the complainant had a school uniform on.
“In law, in reasoning by inference, there are two cardinal rules of logic which cannot be ignored; that the inference sought to be drawn must be consistent with all the proved facts. If it is not, the inference cannot be drawn.
“That the proved facts should be such that they exclude every reasonable inference from them save the one sought to be drawn. If they do not exclude other reasonable inferences, then there must be doubt whether the inference sought to be drawn is correct,” the judge added.
Judge Moesi dismissed the inference, stating that wearing a uniform cannot prove one’s age.
“I agree with Ms Dubula (attorney representing Sekerese) that wearing a uniform does not prove age and that many people wear school uniforms for various reasons, including but not limited to repeating classes without it necessarily reflecting their exact age,” Judge Moesi said.
In respect to that, Judge Moesi acquitted Sekerese of the defilement conviction.
“For the foregoing reasons I consequently determined that the justice of the case would be met by the granting of orders quashing the conviction, setting the appellant’s sentence aside and granting him his liberty,” he passed the order.
Despite securing his freedom following the appeal, Sekerese said he does not intend to put on hold suing the State for P4.5 million for brutal prison assault.