Man acquitted of unlawful possession of arms

Tebogo Kgalemang
Correspondent | Wednesday February 23, 2011 00:00

Justice Moses Chinhenengo ruled against the state, saying it did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that the arms indeed belonged to Seakoko.

'Although the law does not require the accused person's explanation to be true, it wants the state to prove that the accused's explanations are not reasonably possibly true,' Chinhnengo said.

The defence attorney, Tshekiso Tshekiso, had argued that his client did not know how the pistol and the shotgun came to in his car. 

'Seakoko had recently bought a motor vehicle from someone and it was possible that the seller had left (them),' Tshekiso said. 'The cousin had also been using it while in Maun and it is possible that he might have left them.'

He submitted that on the fateful day, Seakoko had given a lift to nine people and it was again possible that one of them slipped the pistol under Seakoko's seat.

'Seakoko simply did not know the existence of a gun or pistol in the car,' argued Tshekiso.

The judge concluded that it was quite possible that all the reasons advanced by the defence were true. Justice Chinhnengo said that the appellant could only be convicted if he had placed the gun under the driver's seat.

The judge said the magistrate had placed emphasis that the cloth in which the pistol was wrapped was wet, but this did not have any impact on the case against Seakoko.

'I do not think much can be read into that because even if it was one of the passengers who placed the pistol under the driver's seat, the wetness of the cloth would not matter,' the judge said. 'Who ever did that, the wetness of the cloth is neither here nor there.'

The background of the case is that Seakoko was stopped at a roadblock on his way from Letlhakane to Gaborone.He had given a lift to nine people at Letlhakane. At the roadblock, the passengers were ordered to disembark while the vehicle was searched, whereupon the police found two guns in the vehicle - a shotgun and a pistol.

The pistol was wrapped in a wet cloth under the drivers seat. All the passengers were not searched while Seakoko was charged with unlawful possession of arms and ammunition. He was convicted at the magistrates court and fined P250 or three months imprisonment.