Arrest warrant for slippery Modenga
Pini Bothoko | Monday September 18, 2017 16:02
The notorious Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) councillor for Mosewapula Ward in Francistown failed to appear before court for mention several times forcing the court to issue a warrant of arrest against him on Thursday.
Modenga is facing four counts of obtaining by false pretences, the offences he committed on March 23 and May 8 at Phakalane in Gaborone. The Monitor has learnt that his attorneys, Motswagole and Company have submitted a notice of withdrawal from representing him.
When he was due to appear for his first mention in mid May, Modenga was reportedly hospitalised at Princess Marina Hospital. Then, The Monitor learnt that after his first appearance in court that same day on arrival at prison, Modenga told prison officials that he was diabetic and was not feeling well pleading to see a doctor.
It was reported that he claimed that the police arrested and took him to Gaborone without his medication.
Ever since his first arraignment Modenga has never turned up for his court mentions as he had been instructed. Court revealed that Modenga pretended to be an employee of the Department of Road Transport and Safety (DRTS) in order to obtain P1,400 from one Talent Chepanda claiming that his vehicle had defects.
On the second count, Modenga defrauded the same Talent Chepanda P1,400 claiming that his truck had defects.
On the third count, it was alleged that on May 18, 2017 still in Gaborone, Modenga obtained money amounting to P1,350 from Mmoniemang Motsamai pretending to be an employee of the DRTS and claiming that he was going to book a road test for his son knowing that it was not true.
In the fourth count, he was accused of defrauding the same Motsamai of clothes worth P6,800 on May 18, 2017 pretending that he was going to sell them on her behalf to his colleagues.
Since 2015, Modenga has been making headlines with similar offences something that allegedly forced his party colleagues to demote him from his former position.
In 2016,when he was dragged before the Francistown small claims court for non-payment of P3,500 for goats he took from Tebalo Mpona in 2015, court papers showed that the controversial councillor’s take home salary was P200 after all deductions and other debts had been paid.
The investigating officer in the case before Broadhurst Magistrate Court, Detective Senior Superintendent Sergeant Marapo once pleaded with the court not to grant him bail because he was not a trustworthy person. Marapo then revealed that Modenga was not cooperative throughout the investigations.
He said for a long time they tried to locate him to no avail, despite calling and requesting him several times to report himself to Broadhurst Police Station. After a tip-off, the police managed to arrest him at his party’s congress that was held in Tonota in May. It has since emerged that more cases of similar offences were registered before the police, as more people were coming forth to report to have once being tricked by Modenga.