Convicted burglar collapses during mitigation

Lindiwe Mozola | Thursday June 15, 2017 16:09

 

Yesterday, Praxedes Maphosa began making gurgling noises and collapsed before magistrate Gofaone Mosweu. A prison warden helped her with an inhaler similar to those used by asthmatics, stabilising her before the matter continued.

Mosweu said the incident was worrisome. “This always happen when the accused is appearing before this court and I never get an explanation of her condition. “So is this what is going to happen every time when the case is supposed to continue? “I don’t know. Lo tla nkgolega,” said the visibly shocked magistrate.

Maphosa and other four Zimbabweans, Shepherd Chibura, Bryton Dube, Charles Matasa and Tanaka Magweregwede, are charged with four counts involving house breaking, burglary and stealing from a dwelling place.

During mitigation prior to her collapse, Maphosa said her health had been deteriorating since her incarceration in 2015 and her heart was diagnosed as swollen.

She pleaded with the court to have mercy on her in sentencing so that she could access better medical care.  “I ask this court to be lenient with me when passing the sentence. 

“I was forced to come here from Zimbabwe as a breast-feeding mother to come and look for the father of my two children for financial support.  “I then got implicated in the matter before this court unknowingly.

I therefore pray for this court to be lenient with me when passing sentence because I am a mother to two small children who still need my care and love,” she said.

Maphosa and her co-accused were found to have broken into two separate houses in Extension Two here in July 2015 and stolen property worth a collective P41,000. Chibura and Dube are alleged to be serial housebreakers, who have been convicted of similar offences and have been in and out of prison since 2006. The matter was adjourned for sentencing.