Man charged with obtaining ID by false pretences

Lebogang Mosikare | Wednesday July 15, 2015 17:04

 

The first prosecution witness, Judith Mpofu, 65, said she did not know Mafumo, who had claimed they were related.

She said sometimes in 2009, government officials came to her place at Jacklas 1 to enquire about Mafumo.  She said the officials asked her if Mafumo was the son of her younger sister, Joyce Mpofu, who lives in the United States of America (USA).

“My younger sister has been married in the USA since 1985. She left Botswana without a child and is married to Whitaker Dennis who is an American. She came to Botswana without a child in 2006 for our father’s burial. She has three children in the USA,” said Mpofu, adding that thereafter she never returned.

Under cross-examination from the defence counsel Miriro Furusa, Mpofu said she was born in a family of 10 children but five of them have since passed on.

She said she knows all the children of her remaining siblings but does not know the accused.

Another state witness, Thusego Segabo, who is a customs officer at BURS, said she knew Mafumo because he is her former lover.

She said she started knowing Mafumo after he employed her younger brother in his cross border goods transportation before they fell in love. She said that one day Mafumo gave her a receipt to go and collect his passport at the immigration offices but the document bore the names of Musa Simon, with a photo of Mafumo.

“I asked him about that but he told me that he is a Motswana. He told me that he was going outside the country to work and study. I think he went for about a year or a year and half,” said Segabo.

She added that she saw Mafumo at Ramokgwebana border post when he was coming from Zimbabwe and was later called by agents of the Directorate of Intelligence Services (DIS) who questioned her about Mafumo’s passport.

Segabo told the court that she didn’t know where Mafumo was born but only knows that he was from Zimbabwe. She said at one point they visited his father in Harare adding that she also met Mafumo’s mother in Botswana sometime in 2009. She also stated that she knows the accused’s siblings.

Segabo also stated she didn’t know if Mafumo’s other name was Musa Simon because he never told her so.

“He didn’t tell me that he was from Natale, but mentioned that he managed to get the Omang through the help of the Natale chief,” said Segabo.

The case continues on September 14.