Probe deepens into cop, prisoner�s deaths
Lebogang Mosikare | Thursday December 22, 2016 14:34
The spokesperson of Botswana Police Service (BPS), assistant commissioner, Witness Bosija said investigations are a process that involves many factors and should be treated diligently before they are completed.
The incident occurred recently when remand prisoner, Gobuamang Ntsuape allegedly wrestled for a steering wheel with the driver of a police vehicle. The 30-year-old’s motives are still unknown. The vehicle, a Toyota Quantum overturned claiming the two lives in the process. Three other people sustained serious injuries but have since been released from hospital.
Ntsuape was being transported by the police along with others to a state prison at the Gerald Estates after appearing in court where he was denied bail.
He had appeared in court facing a spate of serious offences, among them five counts of attempted murder, murder and arson.
Bosija said the investigations will take time because all the people who are central to the issue at hand will have to be interviewed, a process he said takes time and should not be rushed. The accident shocked the nation igniting debate about measures the police use to transport dangerous criminals to and from prison. The two injured inmates have since instructed attorney Tumisang Mokobi to sue the state for possible negligence following the accident. Ntsuape appeared in court last week to face two new counts of manslaughter and one count of disabling a police officer to commit a car accident.
The accident happened on December 1, the very same day that Ntsuape was denied bail by Magistrate Kaveri Kapeko.
Kapeko denied Ntsuape bail basing his reasons on the findings of a psychiatric report, which described Ntsuape as having anger management problems and being suicidal.
The mother of a special constable who perished in the incident made an impassioned plea to the hierarchy of BPS to improve the working conditions of special constables during her son’s funeral.
Unami Ntusa, the mother of Kgosinkwe Ntusa, also appealed to special constables to know what they were hired to do, advising them not to perform any duties that are outside their scope of duty lest they find themselves in a situation like her son’s in future.