Illegal Immigrant 'Rapes' Co-tenant's Daughter

Lebogang Mosikare | Monday February 8, 2021 22:48

 

For one property owner, it became a case of no good deed goes unpunished after accommodating undocumented immigrants. Leasing to the undocumented culminated in a Magistrate's Court hearing a case in which an illegal immigrant from Zimbabwe allegedly raped the daughter of his co-tenant.

The state alleges that Thembinkosi Maphosa, 40, raped a 13-year-old girl on June 4, 2020, at Tati Siding village. 

Maphosa was also charged with entering Botswana using an ungazetted point of entry on an unspecified date in April 2017. 

According to Sergeant Jacob Handly of Botswana Police Service (BPS), the prosecution only became aware that Maphosa entered Botswana illegally following allegations that he had raped his co-tenant’s daughter in 2020.

Following his illegal entry in Botswana, Maphosa was fined P1,000 and in default, the court ordered him to spend six months in jail. 

During Maphosa’s court appearance for rape last week, Handly told Magistrate Game Mooketsi that Maphosa has not managed to raise the P1,000 fine, but has already spent more than six months in jail after he was sentenced in the aftermath of his rape allegations.

Maphosa also confirmed that he had not managed to raise funds because he was incarcerated.

This meant that Maphosa was now left with the allegation of raping the minor, who is now doing Form 1.

With the unceasing economic meltdown in Zimbabwe, which some analysts attribute to the policies of the late President Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF before the army unceremoniously toppled him from power, Botswana has been deporting thousands of illegal immigrants a month, who came into the country as 'economic refugees'. 

The cost of deporting illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe runs into millions and at one point, former President Festus Mogae had expressed displeasure at the status quo.

Mogae at the time had said what was also worrying was the fact that some of the illegal immigrants were also involved in serious crimes such as murder, robbery, cattle rustling and rape, among other criminal activities.