BY SILAS NKALA A ZIMBABWEAN man arrested for overstaying in Botswana and lying that he was a Southern African Development Community (Sadc) intelligence official deployed to that country, was last week slapped with a two-year jail term. Last week, Philimon Sithole appeared before a village chief magistrate, Batho Kgerethwa, who convicted and sentenced him to two years in jail for producing a false document and claiming to be a diplomat. Botswana’s Voice newspaper reports that Sithole pleaded guilty to the two charges. Charges against Sithole were that he stayed in Botswana between December 5, 2018 and April 24, 2020, exceeding the 90 days he had been given by the immigration officers. The court also heard that Sithole, on April 24, 2020 near Gaborone West Police Station, lied to local police that he worked for Sadc as an intelligence officer and political analyst. When further asked to produce other documents to prove that he was a diplomat, Sithole gave them a diplomat card for Sadc issued in 2019 and expiring in 2030. It was the State case that on the same day, Sithole produced a forged residence permit to police. The detective then called Sadc, which denied having an employee by the name Sithole. The police recovered a gun during a further search in Sithole’s car. The investigating officer told the court that Sithole also misrepresented that he was a director at Current Logistics Company and implicated one Edmore Murufu for producing his fake documents.
