Vee impostor rapist applies for bail
Lebogang Mosikare | Tuesday May 13, 2014 11:21
Andrew Setlhare appeared before Justice Professor Kholisani Solo to apply for temporary relief pending his application to have charges against him withdrawn.
Yesterday Setlhare’s attorney, Anthony Manenji approached the court seeking the court to give the convict bail pending appeal of the sentence, which was handed by the lower court.
Manenji said his client should be given temporary bail because there was no record before court of the proceedings of the lower court when the accused was found guilty.
He said not doing so was tantamount to denying him his constitutional right of being heard within a reasonable time.
He said Setlhare appealed the lower court’s decision last September and that it should have been heard at the High Court 30 days after he was convicted at the magistrate’s court.
However state counsel Itumeleng Makoba argued that the application was not brought properly before court.
Justice Solo said that he did not want to dwell on whether the case was brought properly before him, but advised the two parties discuss the issue further.
Last year, Chief Magistrate Peggy Madandume found 22-year-old Setlhare guilty of raping a young girl, who had responded to his bogus newspaper advertisement purporting to call for applicants for Vee’s dancers.
Madandume said that the state had proved beyond reasonable doubt that Setlhare raped the complainant on June 21, 2011 without her consent.
“My life is in tatters. And my future is doomed,” Setlhare, who
had represented himself in the case, said with his eyes fixated on the
bench where the magistrate was seated.
Handing down the sentence before a courtroom packed with the victim’s fellow students, the magistrate said that although the court found some extenuating circumstances, they were far outweighed by the aggravating factors.
The girl had responded to an advertising. On calling the contact number, she was excited when the person responding identified himself as the singer, claiming that he was in Tonota and inviting her to an audition.
On arrival in Tonota, Setlhare met the girl, claiming that Vee had sent him to take her to the audition.
Instead he took her to his house where he locked the door and proceeded to rape her.
Ironically, the rape took place to the sounds of Vee’s hit record Taku, the volume turned up to cover the girl’s cries for help.
Afterwards Setlhare took the girl back to the bus rank.
When she returned to Francistown the girl related her ordeal to friends who suggested she report to an organisation called ‘Youth Counselling On Air’ on their toll free17250 number.
She did this after which the counsellors there informed the police.
In court Magistrate Madandume had ruled that the sexual act was not consensual, despite Setlhare’s claim that the complainant was his girlfriend.
“How can you claim someone you met only half an hour before could be your girlfriend?” the magistrate had asked.