Tonota Kgosi sentenced for woman flogging

Lesitamang Molebedi, 65, breathed a sigh of relief after Chief Magistrate, Mareledi Dipate sentenced him to one year in jail wholly suspended for three years on condition that he does not commit a similar offence within that period. Molebedi attracted the wrath of law after he ordered his niece to be flogged, contrary to the Customary Court Act.

The Act reads: “Section 18 (Punishments) of the Botswana Customary Courts Act reads: “(1) Subject to the provisions of subsections (2), (3) and (4) and section 21 and to the provisions of any other law for the time being in force, a customary court may sentence a convicted person to a fine, imprisonment, corporal punishment or any combination of such punishments but shall not impose any punishment exceeding those set out in its warrant.” “(2) No customary court shall sentence any female or any person who is, in the opinion of the Court, of the age of 40 years or above to corporal punishment.”