Soldier given six hours to pay maintenance fine

PATRICIA MAGANU
Staff Writer | Friday February 26, 2010 00:00

Manchester Sand appeared in court yesterday for judgment and sentence.  Sand defaulted in paying maintenance for eight months in 2008 and was found guilty on eight counts of failure to comply with a court order.  In passing his sentence chief magistrate Mokwadi Gabanagae said that he could only suspend the sentence on one condition.  'Your sentence is as follows; six months in prison for each count. I can only suspend the sentence if the accused pays the arrears by 4:30 today. If you do not pay the P4000 today I will release a warrant for your imprisonment,' he said.

The accused who left the courtroom in a hurry did not seem to believe his ears as he asked for clarification.  In reading his judgment Gabanagae said that it was clear that the accused person did not pay the money even though he wanted to claim that he did.  'Common cause is that on May 26, 2002 the accused person was ordered by the Francistown magistrate court to pay a fee of P250 for each of his children as maintenance until they turned 18 or were self-supportive and the accused person failed to do so,' said the magistrate.

He further said that though the accused gave sworn evidence that he had paid P6000 he knew it was not the money that he was ordered to pay by the court.  'When he came to pay P6000 he was told that he was in arrears of P4000,' he said.  He said that the complainant gave evidence that she had indeed received the P6000 but it was payment for arrears for 2007, so the P4000 was still pending. Gabanagae added that when the accused person was ordered to pay P500 per month, he was employed as a soldier with the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) where he still works. During trial when he was giving evidence the accused told the court that he had not paid the money because he wanted some things to be clarified to him.  In mitigation, he said that he was married with children and that he was also taking care of his deceased sister's children.  'The children were receiving rations but now they are above the age so I have to take care of them as well,' he said.  He was ordered to pay the P4000 arrears before the end of the working day or go to prison.