Rapist �impersonates� DJ Goveiya
Mpho Mokwape | Thursday July 7, 2016 16:48
Andrew ‘Mox’ Setlhare yesterday appeared before the Court of Appeal where he tried to have his conviction overturned by painting the teenage girl as a liar.
Setlhare, who appeared relentless in his submission, argued that they were lovers and denied ever telling the girl that he was DJ Goveiya but only that he was mostly known as Goveiya or Mox in the area.
The self-confessed entertainer told court that he got the teenager’s number from a third person and that he started chatting to her to a point that they started being identified as partners.
“We were in a relationship and I never invited her to my place under the pretence that I was holding dance auditions but she knew she was checking on her boyfriend,” he argued.
Setlhare said he did not know why the girl later lied and turned on him since they were partners and that they had been chatting a lot prior to their meeting for the first time.
Through his submissions he asked the judges to question why the girl despite giving evidence that he was not the guy she had expected, had not run away or call for help especially that they met in a public area.
“I went to collect her while I was still dirty because I had been working on a car as we have a garage in our home, and I did not even force her to come with me and I never said Goveiya was setting up any equipment. I went to collect her as her lover.
At the time I did not know she was a student and that she left home without notifying her parents; it was new to me during the trial,” he said. He also questioned why the teenager was roaming around the shops with him the following day after the alleged rape and did not even alert anyone about her ordeal, if indeed she was raped and why she waited for six days to report the incident.
Setlhare was convicted of rape early this year and given a 10-year sentence for luring the teenager from Francistown to Tonota on the pretext there were dance auditions.
According to evidence before the trial court, the teenager took the trip to Tonota excited that she was going to the dance auditions without notifying her parents as they had refused to support her dancing career.
Following a phone call to enquire where the auditions were being held, she was met by a dirty dreadlocked man who identified himself as the messenger from Goveiya.
“The man was dirty with smelling dreadlocks and I went with him because he said to me that Goveiya was at the venue setting up sound instruments and that he had sent him to collect me, only to find that there were no auditions,” reads the documents.
Moreover Setlhare is said to have taken the girl to his home where he sexually assaulted her with threats not to tell anyone and that no one would believe her even if she reported the incident.
The Directorate of Public Prosecutions stood by their submissions and maintained that Setlhare had raped the girl after lying and threatening her.
Judgement will be delivered on July 28.