Police incompetence blamed for repeat offences
Sharon Mathala | Friday May 27, 2016 10:34
Repeat offence is becoming a trend. The media is awash with stories of alleged robbers or killers and rapists who when on bail are dragged back to court for committing similar crimes and then granted bail. It has emerged that the problem is not with the courts but with slow and incompetent investigators.
Experts argued that police investigators are often ‘trigger happy’ to arrest and charge would-be-offenders without benefit of thorough and complete investigations. Even if they have a strong case against the accused, bail is granted because the investigators fail to convince the courts that the accused is not a candidate for bail.
Evidently, the magistrates are frustrated by this developing trend. Just recently, magistrate Goodwill Makofi of Village’s Magistrate Court openly expressed his anger, slamming the state over such cases.
Makofi was presiding over a case in which a man is accused of raping and later forcing his victims to bath, allegedly in an effort to destroy evidence.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) lawyer argued that the man was not a candidate for bail because he has other similar cases before the courts.
Makofi noted that if only the police would complete their investigation, the problem of repeated offenders would be reduced.
In a highly publicised murder case of the former Fairgrounds Holdings chief executive officer (CEO) Michael Montshiwa, three men appeared for murder. Two spent sometime in jail with the police saying they were still looking for the gun allegedly used to commit the crime as well as another man suspected to be linked to the incident.
The two were granted bail months after the arrest. But, this week, the charges against the two were withdrawn, and they were freed.
In another prominent case, Thabo Masilo was freed of rape and robbery charges because of police ‘shallow’ investigations. Giving his reasons when discharging Masilo of the offences, the presiding magistrate said: “I may mention in passing that the police and all those charged with investigating crime owe it to themselves, the victims of crime and indeed the society at large to demonstrate fair and proper level of proficiency in their investigations.”
In his speech at the official opening of the Legal Year, Chief Justice Maruping Dibotelo argued that a number of interventions are required to ensure that the disposal rate is in line with the case disposal standards.
“During the period January – December, 2015 our Magistrates courts registered 8 76, 125 criminal cases and 18,284 civil cases of which 3,858 criminal cases and 9,042, civil cases were completed, representing a clearance rate of 48% and 50% respectively,” Dibotelo said.
Even President Ian Khama is concerned about these repeated offenders and overcrowding in prisons, as hinted by the Palapye chief magistrate Rebecca Motsamai. Speaking during the rape case against Mandla Ndlovu, who had been in police custody since last November, Motsamai revealed that the High Court had asked for a report on case delays, which would be presented to President Ian Khama.
“There is a long list at the registry of cases that have been dragging on and we have to explain to the High Court the reasons for the delay,” she said.
“The President needs to know why there is no progress, which is causing overcrowding in prisons,” she told the court, adding that, “some people are kept in custody even though they could be out on bail, only because some police officers chose to relax on their jobs.”