Court whips Gaborone crime syndicate members

Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Tuesday June 24, 2014 15:04

 

Odirile Ikalafeng (24) and Thembani Mantswenyana (23) who are said to be part of a crime syndicate were punished by the court’s deputy president, Kenneth Thari, for stealing trousers from two shops at Rail Park Mall in Gaborone.

Mantswenyana stole a pair of black Guess jeans at OPO shop worth P150 while Ikalafeng stole a pair of khaki trousers worth P135 from the Body Rap shop.

During sentencing, Thari noted that the pair has been nabbed and dragged before the court on several occasions.

“The local police are failing to do their job. These same culprits appear before the courts time and again without being appropriately sentenced because they are failing to take their fingerprints for future reference,” he said.  On the day of their latest crime, an alert security guard nabbed the pair and hauled them to Borakanelo Police Station, where the stolen trousers were recovered after interrogation.

In mitigation, Ikalafeng pleaded with the court not to send him to jail as he would lose his job. Mantswenyana said he had a three-year-old child who would be without a breadwinner, if he received a custodial sentence.

Thari accepted the duo’s mitigation and warned them to “never engage in such outrageous behaviour”.  Besides the five strokes of the whip, the two were given a four-month jail sentence suspended on condition that they do not commit the same offence within a year.