Almost three years after the tragic road accident that claimed the lives of seven Gumare United players, their driver has finally been brought before court facing charges of causing death by dangerous driving.
Thuso Edwin Ramaretha, 27, of Serorome ward in Palapye this week pleaded with a Maun Magistrates court to reserve his plea as he needed to engage a lawyer to represent him in the matter.
Ramaretha is accused of causing the accident that killed Gumare United players through dangerous driving.
Information presented before court is that on the 26th January 2018, Ramaretha who was engaged as a Health and Safety Officer at Gumare Agri Holdings, agreed to drive the team to the neighbouring Sehitwa village for a constituency tournament.
Unfortunately the car overturned at Tsau village along the A35 road resulting in the death of six team members, and eight of them injured with one very critical.
The critically injured player sadly passed on the following day in hospital.
Pleading with the court to reserve his plea, Ramaretha asked to be given time to seek legal representation. “I am not ready to plead to the charges; may I be given a chance to find an attorney who will advise me on this matter,” he said.
According to state prosecutor, Modiegi Wanga from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions, (DPP) there were a total of 15 passengers on board including Ramaretha on the day of the fatal accident.
Wanga added that despite losing control of the car, Ramaretha was sober. “He was in a rush to drop off the team in Sehithwa from Gumare with the intention of going back to Gumare the same night to sleep.”
In the absence of an attorney, the prosecution furnished Ramaretha with the postmortem reports of the deceased persons, statement of the investigating officer and eye witness statements, to prepare for the case.
He is expected to be back in court with his attorney on the 29th of October to plead to the charges laid against him.
