Ntsuape Charged With Lesser Offence

Lebogang Mosikare | Monday October 23, 2017 14:50

 

The charge was precipitated by the December 1, 2016 incident in which Ntsuape allegedly wrestled for the steering wheel of a Quantum van with a police officer who was taking inmates back to the prison facility at the Francistown Centre for Illegal Immigrants after they appeared in court.

The van overturned claiming the lives of a special constable and an inmate.

Other inmates and police officers who were in the van sustained varying degrees of injuries while Ntsuape escaped with a few minor head injuries.

He was subsequently charged with two counts of murder and one count of disabling in order to cause an offence. As time passed by, the prosecution changed his murder charge to manslaughter.

However on Tuesday, Ntsuape was charged with the offence of interfering with driving of a motor vehicle contrary to the Road Traffic Act.

State prosecutor, Gasemotho Pitlagano told the court that after carefully examining evidence before them, they came to the conclusion of charging Ntsuape with the current offence because other charges that he was previously charged with could not be sustained during trial.

Asked if he had anything to say, a visibly angry Ntsuape said that the police were taking his case lightly while he was rotting in jail.

He pleaded with the court to tell the prosecution to expedite his case because he has been languishing in jail for a very long time since the beginning of 2016.

Magistrate Cele Lebakeng however told Ntsuape to calm down because the court is tasked with the responsibility of listening to his concerns provided he presented them politely and in the right manner.

Ntsuape heeded the advice of the magistrate and calmly prayed to be given bail.

Pitlagano then told the court that Ntsuape has long being granted bail in the current matters before court.

Apart from the charges that Ntsuape briefly appeared in court on Tuesday, he is already facing four counts of threat to kill, one count of murder and two counts of arson.

He allegedly committed the offence because he could not fathom the fact that his former girlfriend and mother of his son, Dorcas Kgosietsile, had decided to end their love relationship.There were murmurs of disapproval from police officers and people in the gallery who felt that Ntsuape was let off the hook despite ‘having committed an offence’ that claimed the lives of two people.