Nchindo and Matome sentencing today

GIDEON NKALA
Staff Writer | Thursday October 28, 2010 00:00

 

This follows the conclusion of mitigation yesterday. The accused had called in five individuals, among them pastors, family friends and professional associates.

Local businessmen and a friend of the Nchindos, Satar Dada and Father Arthur McCann of the Phakalane Catholic Parish testified on the character of Garvas Nchindo.

Father McCann said he knows Nchindo as an honest man who takes interest in the affairs of the church and takes care of his family. The prosecution asked him whether he will maintain his view of Nchindo even though Nchindo has been found to be dishonest by the court.

The priest retorted that his view was independent of the findings of the court. Businessman Satar Dada told court that ever since the passing on of Louis Nchindo, the burden of looking after Nchindo's extended family has fallen on the shoulders of Garvas.

He mentioned in his character reference that Garvas Nchindo was the sole bread winner and this was disputed under cross-examination by DPP's Kgosietsile Ngakaagae compelling Dada to change 'sole' to 'main'. The prosecution suggested to Dada that the reason why he was giving the statement was because he has business relations with the Nchindos and as such his reference was motivated by his desire to protect his business interests and not truth.

Dada maintained his position and even intimated that his opinion about Garvas Nchindo matters even above that of the court.

Reverend Mere of the Methodist Church came to the dock and described Matome as a worthy member of God's flock. Stewart White addressed court on Matome 's activities in improving theatre and drama in Botswana. He said Matome played a pivotal role in seeing to it that the disadvantaged children are not left out.

Piet Van Riet-Lowe of Kgalagadi Conservation Society said he was not asked to write a character letter about Matome but he has volunteered to do so. He described Matome as a pillar in environmental efforts of KCS.

Matome serves KCS as chairman. Lowe said should Matome be incarcerated KCS activities and efforts will suffer. All the last three referees - Mere, Stewart and Lowe - were not cross examined by the prosecution.Both Matome and Garvas Nchindo did personally mitigate but their lawyer Advocate Webster made a submission on their behalf.Addressing himself to sentencing, Webster said any exercise in sentencing should determine what the interests of society, the state and the accused are. He said the accepted practice is that first offenders should as far as possible be kept out of jail and should only go to jail as the last resort.

Webster said retribution should never be the motivation when sentencing wrongdoers. Addressing himself to Garvas Nchindo, he said the position of the law is such that he cannot be found guilty for the offences committed by Golconda Pty Ltd and Tourism Development Consortium.

Putting aside the company offences, he said, Garvas Nchindo in reality has been convicted of two counts - Four and Five - in which he has been convicted of forgery and obtaining by false pretences.

Advocate Webster submitted that even in the aggravating circumstances of these offences he has not been found to have done anything directly but he has been found guilty by association.

Further, he said the counts in reality rest on the commission of one offence, the fact that the young Nchindo is said to have associated himself with a fraudulent memorandum.

Given the fact that the two offences take a maximum of three years and two years respectively, it demonstrates that these offences were never meant, even in the minds of the framers, to be very serious offences.

Webster asked court to consider what Garvas Nchindo did. He submitted that he never went out of his way to spearhead or do anything except that he is guilty by association.

He pleaded that such a man should not go to prison because society does not suffer anything if he stays within. In fact, he posited that society stands to benefit a lot by him being productively involved, rather than being incarcerated.

His absence, it was argued, would rob his young children, wife, widowed mother and a host of other extended family members the support that he would ordinarily render to them.

Similarly, Advocate Webster argued that the offences upon which Matome had been convicted do not show that Matome independently went out of his way to defraud. He instead relied on the allegation contained in the charge sheet, that all the wrong things that he is said to have committed he was doing under instruction from the all powerful Louis Nchindo, the then Managing Director of Debswana. Webster said Matome did not accrue any benefit from these proceeds.

'He does not own Plot 55720 nor Plot 3084,' he said. Advocate Webster argued that Matome, as a married man with two elderly children has suffered enough, in that he had to explain to his children who are old enough to know what is happening.

He said at the commencement of the trial, Matome was asked to leave Debswana. He has been asked to leave a number of boards where he served. He was even asked to step down from a company he formed.

Webster said the case has reduced Matome's career prospects to zero and as such there can never be any worse suffering for the man. 'He will never be the Corporate Director of Debswana,' he pointed out.

He implored the court to consider the fact that both his clients have suffered the indignity of sitting in the dock, being bundled in a prison van and staying in prison for 16 days.

Webster passionately pleaded with the court not to give custodial sentence or when the court feels under compulsion to impose custodial sentence it should be wholly suspended or at worst a supervised extramural should be imposed.

At the end, the prosecution, through Matlhogonolo Phuthego, mentioned that while they have very little role in sentencing, they wanted the court to be mindful of aggravating circumstances and he stated that there is no indication that the convicts are remorseful and that there was breach of trust, particularly by Matome.Moroka said he will deliver sentence at 2pm today.