A pensioner accused of using presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma's name to dupe his former jail mate into paying him money has told a Johannesburg court that he does not want to spend "the very little period he has in life" in prison.
Phuthi Mabotja‚ 63‚ who was charged with one count of theft of a motor vehicle‚ was appearing at the Johannesburg Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday.
He has already pleaded guilty to the offence which took place between September 2014 and January 2016.
The flamboyant Mabotja conned Oupa Malinga into believing that he would secure him a R65‚000 monthly contract to distribute goods on behalf of Dlamini-Zuma.
Mabotja took Malinga's bakkie under the false pretext‚ sold it to a Zimbabwean national and never paid him the R65‚000 each month.
The police have since recovered the vehicle.
In court Mabotja's legal representative‚ advocate Ryhne Nchabeleng‚ who was pushing for house arrest and a fine for his client‚ had members of the public in stitches when he said such crimes were usually committed by young people who were facing peer pressure and he could not fathom how an elderly man could commit such a crime.
"I don't understand how a 63-year-old can be under peer pressure to commit an offence. He was even unable to explain himself to me because I was very angry when I addressed him this weekend. He stood in front of me biting his tongue. Although I'm his legal representative‚ when I look at him I see a father figure‚" he said.
Nchabeleng said Mabotja told him that he "doesn't know what reduced his high moral value… and he will never in the very little period he has [left] in life behave in the manner in which he did".
"The accused requested me to tell the court that he is sorry‚ regretful and he is willing to take whatever punishment that will follow as long as that punishment will not confine him in the prison cell.
"What purpose will incarceration serve a person who is most probably close to his death? The car has been recovered‚ although it is not in its original state.
"We can argue that he had been a troublesome kind of a person in his youth days‚ considering that he has four previous convictions in 1974.
"For some time in his life he was behaving and I wish the court should not put emphasis on his old behavioural pattern but to put more emphasis‚ because we should look at the bright side… we can't look at the dark side‚ the fact that this person from 1974 he has been conducting himself accordingly‚" he said.
Both the prosecutor and Mabotja's lawyer obtained a correctional supervision report‚ saying he was monitorable and he should be placed under the programme of correctional supervision.
- SowetanLIVE
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