Maun Magistrates Court sentenced 29-year-old South African truck driver Thapelo Skhosana to 10 years in jail for trafficking marijuana into Botswana.[1] Skhosana was convicted of trafficking in narcotic drugs after police stopped his truck at Makalamabedi veterinary gate and police checkpoint on the outskirts of Maun in January 2022.[1] Officers searching his Woolworths truck found five packages of a green substance that was later confirmed to be 29.4 kilograms of dagga.[2] The Ngami Times reported on 26 September 2022 that Chief Magistrate Thebeetsile Mulalu had sentenced Skhosana to five years in prison and a P20 000 fine, payable within two days, with a further five years to be added if he did not pay.[2]

Skhosana could not raise the P20 000 within the two days given, so the alternative term applied and he will serve the full decade.[1] Magistrate Thebeetsile Mulalo said drug taking was becoming a big problem in the area, with young people particularly affected, and that the courts must impose appropriate sentences.[1] The magistrate noted that trafficking in narcotic drugs carries a fine of up to P500 000 or up to 25 years in prison, or both.[1] The court treated Skhosana as a first-time offender and backdated his sentence to his arrest 220 days earlier, so he will be released in 2032.[1]

The Ngami Times reported that Skhosana told police an unknown man had given him the packages at Kwa Nokeng filling station in Maun to take to a man in Francistown.[2] The magistrate declined to believe that police had settled for the carrier when they could have pursued the supplier, saying Skhosana had protected the identity of the dealer.[2] The Voice ran the story in its print edition of 30 September 2022 under the headline A decade away for dagga, and its subheading said the trucker paid a high price for failing to pay the P20,000 fine.[3]