{"id":13512,"date":"2022-09-08T16:35:40","date_gmt":"2022-09-08T16:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/former-bpf-spokesperson-also-plans-to-sue-state-for-wrongful-detention"},"modified":"2022-09-08T18:21:10","modified_gmt":"2022-09-08T18:21:10","slug":"former-bpf-spokesperson-also-plans-to-sue-state-for-wrongful-detention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/former-bpf-spokesperson-also-plans-to-sue-state-for-wrongful-detention","title":{"rendered":"Former BPF spokesperson also plans to sue state for wrongful detention"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>Another million-pula wrongful detention lawsuit is on the way and features former spokesperson of the Botswana Patriotic Front, Justice Motlhabani who was detained for two weeks during the 2020 national lockdown. He was charged alongside Oratile Dikgokong and Letsogile Barupi for \u201cpublishing statements with intention to deceive persons about the COVID-19 infection\u201d on a Facebook page called \u201cBotswana Trending News\u2019\u2019, as well as for the \u201cuse of offensive electronic communication.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

Two years later, the state has not been able to assemble a solid enough case and last week, dropped all charges against the suspects. Following this development, Motlhabani says that he will be meeting his lawyers for the purpose of issuing instructions for launching a lawsuit against the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state needs to be held accountable for what happened. I went through embarrassment, pain, trauma, my life was disrupted and I was exposed to Covid-19 when all I had wanted was stay home during the nation lockdown to avoid such exposure,\u201d says Motlhabani, adding that while he has not yet decided on the amount he would sue for, \u201cit will certainly be for millions of pula.\u201d<\/p>\n

He reveals that his legal bills alone came to around P100 000. Now employed in the Serowe South Constituency Office as an Administration and Research Officer, Motlhabani says that he also incurred extra costs in the form of travel and accommodations costs. He came to Gaborone for court hearings \u201calmost every month\u201d, stayed at hospitality establishments and had to buy meals.<\/p>\n

Motlhabani views the withdrawal of the charges by the state as exoneration that became apparent in the very early days of the matter. He says that the state insisted on going ahead with the matter because \u201cit was going after everyone\u201d associated with former president Ian Khama, who founded the BPF in 2019.<\/p>\n

Motlhabani was arrested in Palapye and later transferred to Gaborone where he was held at the Gaborone West and Urban police stations on different days before being taken to Lobatse Prison as remand prisoner. It was while at the latter that he witnessed the most horrifying sight that he had ever seen. Another remand prisoner who had just come in walked over to the toilet, dropped his trousers and sat on the toilet for what Motlhabani initially thought was bad, old-fashioned number-twooing.<\/p>\n

The prisoner made a staccato of multi-octave excretory grunts that was accompanied by bouts of face-scrunching. He then bounded to his feet, reached behind his back with a hand to the orifice where the sun never shines. As newbie remand prisoners (like Motlhabani) watched in horror, the prisoner pulled out the blackest, hardest, most symmetrical stool in the form of a small Nokia cellphone that Batswana call Sedilame. Minutes later, the prisoner had wiped the phone clean, switched it on and was communicating with the outside criminal world.<\/p>\n

Not long ago, Lobatse MP and former finance minister, Dr. Thapelo Matsheka, was arrested and detained for three days. After his release, Matsheka is suing the state for P11 million for wrongful arrest and detention.<\/p>\n

Motlhabani\u2019s case attracted the attention of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists as well as the American Bar Association, which sent an observer to the Gaborone High Court to monitor proceedings.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. Another million-pula wrongful detention lawsuit is on the way and features former spokesperson of the Botswana Patriotic Front, Justice Motlhabani who was detained for two weeks during the 2020 national lockdown. He was charged alongside Oratile Dikgokong and Letsogile Barupi for \u201cpublishing statements with intention to deceive persons about the COVID-19 infection\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":13511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,10,16],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-13512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-parties","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nFormer BPF spokesperson also plans to sue state for wrongful detention - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Another million-pula wrongful detention lawsuit is on the way and features former spokesperson of the Botswana Patrio ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/former-bpf-spokesperson-also-plans-to-sue-state-for-wrongful-detention\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former BPF spokesperson also plans to sue state for wrongful detention\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Another million-pula wrongful detention lawsuit is on the way and features former spokesperson of the Botswana Patrio ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/former-bpf-spokesperson-also-plans-to-sue-state-for-wrongful-detention\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-08T16:35:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-08T18:21:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_49-631a327b78b8b.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"459\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/former-bpf-spokesperson-also-plans-to-sue-state-for-wrongful-detention#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/former-bpf-spokesperson-also-plans-to-sue-state-for-wrongful-detention\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Former BPF spokesperson also plans to sue state for wrongful detention\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-08T16:35:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-08T18:21:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/former-bpf-spokesperson-also-plans-to-sue-state-for-wrongful-detention\"},\"wordCount\":558,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/former-bpf-spokesperson-also-plans-to-sue-state-for-wrongful-detention#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_49-631a327b78b8b.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"parties\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/former-bpf-spokesperson-also-plans-to-sue-state-for-wrongful-detention#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/former-bpf-spokesperson-also-plans-to-sue-state-for-wrongful-detention\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/former-bpf-spokesperson-also-plans-to-sue-state-for-wrongful-detention\",\"name\":\"Former BPF spokesperson also plans to sue state for wrongful detention - 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