A Shashemooke thief will spend the next 12 months behind bars after a Francistown Magistrates Court locked him away for stealing household items.
It has been over three years since Kepaletswe Morotsi was busted at the height of the Covid-19 lockdown in April 2021 at Shashemooke’s Muzila ward.
While residents were under lockdown, Morotsi was caught pushing a wheelbarrow full of stolen items on daylight, belonging to one of the residents.
The stolen items included a television set, radio, stove, blankets, clothes, an inventor just to mention a few and they were all recovered.
After stealing the items, Morotsi boldly wore one of the t-shirts and proceeded to a nearby yard where he got inside the house and left the loot inside.
He was seen by a 12-year-old girl who then asked him what the items were for, and he told her it was none of her concern.
When testifying in court Morotsi denied stealing the items, instead claiming that he was just simply delivering the items as instructed by a man whose name he forgot.
Before sentence was passed, Morotsi pleaded for a lenient sentence.
“I have just secured a job, so by sending me to prison I am going to lose it. The other thing is I have children I am taking care of and by imprisoning me, it will affect them badly,” he said.
Magistrate Tshepo Magetse then stated that criminal incompetency by an accused person ought to be rewarded with a harsh lesson and fitting consequences. “The sentence should serve as a stark reminder that crime does not pay. Having factored the interest of the society, mostly firsthand interests of the complainant, and individual circumstances of the accused persons (he did not benefit from this offence).
“He is to serve 12 months in prison backdated to the duration he spent in prison whilst waiting for finalization of the instant case,” said the magistrate.
