QUEEN MOSARWE
Freelance journalist Sonny Serite will today (Tuesday) appear before Extension 2 Magistrate Ntombizodwa Ncube for receiving stolen property from co-accused Abueng Sebola.Outstanding matters the court is expected to hear is whether witnesses’ statements have been recorded and if the prosecuting team has had enough time to record the statements, as they had requested to be afforded time in the last mention. The court is also expected to hear whether the statements have been availed to the accused persons.
Serite and Sebola, were arrested in March and made headlines after Sebola, a Records Officer at the Office of the President, and an alleged source of the journalist was arrested for stealing by person employed in the public service contrary to Section 276 of the Penal code. Particulars of the offence are that on the 16th March 2016, Sebola stole an official file containing documents of one Tsaone Nkarabang, which came into his possession by virtue of his employment.
Serite on the other hand is accused of receiving the documents from Sebola knowingly or having believe that the documents were unlawfully obtained.
Appearing before Magistrate Ncube for bail application a day after the due was arrested, state witness, Detective Assistant Superintendent Mogotsi Rankhudu said the personal file of Nkarabang alleged to have been stolen by Sebola and found in possession of Serite, contained medical bills and Nkarabang’s marriage certificate.
Rankhudu had argued for the accused to be remanded in custody to allow their residences to be searched as some documents from the file were still missing, even though he was unable to say which documents were missing.
The duo, represented by lawyer Martin Dingake was given bail after four days in custody. Their bail conditions were given “on their own cognizance” in the surety sum of P5000, and were to report to the Central Police Station fortnightly every Wednesday and also not to interfere with state witnesses.