BDF playing double standards?

LEKOPANYE MOOKETSI
Correspondent | Monday September 13, 2010 00:00

 

Although the army is footing the legal fees for the suspects in the John Kalafatis case, the same courtesy has not been applied in previous cases. 

BDF is paying for the legal services of Dzikamani Mothobi, Ronny Fatako, Goitsemang Sechele and Ronny Matako who are accused of shooting Kalafatis dead. The four soldiers who have been charged with murder, are being represented by Francistown lawyer, Phadza Kgalemang.

BDF says they are footing the bill because the suspects were on duty when they allegedly committed the offence.This has fuelled speculation that the security agents who killed Kalafatis were given orders by their supervisors or someone at the top. Kalafatis, who was a passenger in a car, was shot dead in full view of the public near Extension 12 shopping complex.   While the BDF is willing to cover the bill for the Kalafatis suspects, the institution did not do the same in other cases involving soldiers who allegedly committed crimes while on duty.   In 2006, four BDF members and two special constables were charged with indecently assaulting Zimbabweans in Ramotswa. The suspects were also charged with rape after they allegedly forced a Zimbabwean woman and a man to have sexual intercourse while they watched. The four soldiers and the police officers allegedly committed the offence while they were on patrol in Ramotswa. The trial in this matter dragged for a long time and the accused were suspended from duty.

A Gaborone lawyer, Tshiamo Rantao who represented some of the soldiers during the Ramotswa case, said his clients were paying from their own pockets.  He said he was not paid by BDF.  The Lobatse High Court later acquitted three of the soldiers. This was after their case was committed to the High Court for sentencing after Senior Magistrate Munashe Ndlovu had found them guilty together with the two special constables. The Magistrate Court had earlier acquitted the fourth soldier during the trial stage. 

BDF public relations officer, Major Fana Maswabi, confirmed that the army is footing the legal costs of the suspects in the Kalafatis case.  He said the Kalafatis and the Ramotswa cases are inherently different from each other.'Each case is treated on its own merit,' he stated.  He said the suspects in the Kalafatis matter are still on duty.

The officers have not been interdicted, as is usually the case when a government employee is facing criminal charges.  In another statement, BDF said it has engaged lawyers for the suspects in the Kalafatis case because they were acting in the course and scope of their duty.  'The soldiers who forced the Zimbabwean nationals to perform group sex in Ramotswa were obviously not acting in the course and scope of their duty.  The two case are not comparable at all,' the statement said. But a senior BDF officer who did not want to be identified, said shooting people is within the scope of their duties. As soldiers, he said, they can be given legal orders to kill someone. 

But he said they can never be given orders to indecently assault civilians.  He said this is why the BDF did not defend the officers involved in the Ramotswa matter.