'My husband never consulted traditional doctors'
Mpho Mokwape | Tuesday August 9, 2022 06:00
The MP’s wife, Veronica Matsheka, made an urgent application demanding her husband’s immediate release from the Directorate of Intelligence and Security’s (DIS) custody. She denied that her husband ever admitted to such utterances as alleged by the spy unit.
On Saturday during court proceedings before the Lobatse High Court, the State attorney representing the DIS and others, Kgotso Botlhole told the court that according to the court documents Matsheka (Thapelo) indeed consulted traditional doctors and that he conceded to those allegations.
“Dr Matsheka admitted to having gone to different traditional doctors to avoid being arrested for the boy’s murder and he has in his document conceded to that,” he said.
In lightning speed, the legislator’s attorney, Senior Counsel (SC) Dick Bayford objected to Botlhole’s words saying it was a blatant lie that his client has admitted to such allegations.
Bayford explained that even Matsheka’s wife as the applicant was perplexed to hear such and explained that her husband would never admit to that as they ‘are a devout Christian family that believes in God’.
“It is my first time hearing that my husband has said he has consulted traditional doctors. This is not true because my husband and I, as a family, have never consulted traditional doctors because we are a Christian family and we believe in God, not traditional medicine,” Bayford read from the affidavit authored by the MP’s wife.
Justice Gaolapelwe Ketlogetswe advised Botlhole to refrain from such antics and stick to the facts before him.
During arguments, the attorney on Matsheka’s team, SC Unoda Mack also demanded his client’s immediate release from custody arguing that what the DIS was doing was illegal.
He explained to the court that his client has been in detention for more than 48 hours without a valid remand.
“DIS behaves like it is above the law. Dr Matsheka has been in their custody since Tuesday on the second, without any valid remand and on top of that, he was arrested without a valid warrant of arrest,” he said.
Mack submitted that it was over 48 hours and no law in Botswana allows for a civilian to be held for that long without being remanded through a valid court order and that he needed to be released immediately.
“I ask that my client be immediately released, if not what would be the basis of his remand because it is illegal?” he asked.
However, in DIS’ defence, Botlhole said there was a valid reason why the accused was held for that long without a valid remand.
“This is not an ordinary case, it is about the murder of a little boy who was denied the right to live. He and his family deserve justice, therefore, it was necessary to arrest the said accused and remand him as investigations were carried out,” Botlhole argued.
Though admitting that indeed Matsheka was arrested without a warrant, it was not legal as there were such provisions in the law and that they had also sought the warrant as soon as possible after his arrest.
On remanding him without a court order, Botlhole said they had wanted to bring the extension of the remand on the same day Matsheka’s wife filed the application for his release, so they figured since the case was before the same judge, they shall do so when the application was heard.
Meanwhile, Matsheka has been in the custody of the DIS since August 2 and the warrant of arrest was obtained two days later following his arrest as indicated in relation to the murder of Tlotso (Karema).
Tlotso was a six-year-old boy who was reported missing in Lobatse sometime around March 18 and was found dead in April.
At the initial stages of the investigation, the boy’s stepfather confessed to killing him before more suspects were arrested including Matsheka and his campaign manager and Peleng East councillor, Thuso Mantsi.