The sorry-looking convict would be ordered to lower his trousers and underpants to receive the lashes on bare-buttocks. At a Gaborone Customary Court, the flogging was so serious that blood splashed on the walls. In another incident in Mogoditshane, the convict fainted after two strokes, before he could get the full punishment.
The chief sympathised with him and saved him from further punishment. Previously, corporal punishment used to be administered on the back of male offenders at the Kgotla. But the practice has since been stopped and the punishment is now applied on the buttocks. The women are exempted from flogging. But recently a Molepolole headman grabbed headlines when he sentenced a married woman to corporal punishment. The woman was walloped on her back. The headman later said he exercised his traditional powers. However, the law only allows the flogging of male offenders under 40 years.
Due to the congestions in local prisons, Customary Courts prefer corporal punishment than jail sentences.
