American Billionaire Falls Victim To Gabs Crime

Mpho Mokwape | Monday March 24, 2014 17:23

 

 

The billionaire couple who have made Gaborone a second home have pledged to build 20 libraries for the Botswana government, while another American billionaire couple, Bill and Melinda Gates, have committed themselves to installing the libraries with state of the art Internet technology.

The Rothschilds became victims after Zimbabwean immigrants broke into their Extension II house and stole electronic equipment worth hundreds of thousands of Pula.

Stolen items from the Rothschild’s include two apple Macbook computers valued at US$2,000 each (P17,600), Nikon and Lumix cameras each valued at US$8,000 (P70,300) and US$4,000 (P35,000) respectively, five cellphones including a blackberry and iPhone valued at US$1,000 (P8,000 and US$300 (P2,600) respectively, and a computer back up valued at US$200 (P1,800).However, most of the goods have been recovered except one cellphone and one camera. The three suspects were on Friday arraigned before Extension II Magistrate Court.

The accused persons, Peter Dube, Brian Nkomo and Linos Manyara were charged with one count of burglary and one count of stealing from a dwelling house. Their plea was reserved on both counts when they appeared before Magistrate Joy Brown-Norman.

In the charge sheet, on count one the three accused persons on or about March 15, 2014 at Extension 11 in Gaborone acting in concert with intent to steal, broke and entered into a house belonging to Robert Rothschild.

On count two, the three accused persons still on the same date at Extension II in Gaborone acting together entered into a dwelling house and stole valuable items ranging from computers and cellphones. During the arraignment, Public Prosecutor, Mosetsanagape Sello of Central Police Station pleaded with the court to remand the accused persons, as the investigations are still ongoing.

“I would advise the court to remand the accused persons in custody to avoid interference with the recovery of the rest of the goods,” emphasised Sello. Sello said that the three accused might skip the country if released from custody as Dube and Nkomo have passports without valid days.  The third accused, Manyara claims to have a passport, which has not been found yet.

Meanwhile, when reminded about their rights and the right to legal representation by the magistrate, the accused persons told the court that they would conduct their own defence during trial proceedings.