Isaiah Morewagae
1 September 2008
A 38 year-old woman of Mogonye, Kgakgamatso Sekgabetlela, who was wrongly diagnosed as HIV positive will have to wait a little longer for the outcome of her law suit in which she is claiming damages of P500,000 for pain and suffering.
On Thursday, the High Court postponed the case to September 12th to allow attorneys time to prepare their final submissions.
Justice Key Dingake urged both attorneys to pay particular attention to the thorny issue of 'quantum'.
Dingake appealed for proper guidance from well researched heads of arguments on the issue of quantum with reference to case law.
The state and the plaintiff's attorneys failed to reach an agreement on the amount which the plaintiff can claim for the damages. Both parties agreed that the plaintiff was wrongly diagnosed as HIV positive and that such false diagnosis was the results of negligence on the part of the defendant. As a result of such negligence, the plaintiff suffered damages.
The defendant did not call any witnesses and the case was adjourned after the plaintiff called two witnesses up to the stand. Sekgabetlela was the first to take the dock.
She told the court that she was diagnosed as HIV positive in March 2003 after she went for antenatal care treatment. Sekgabetlela averred that she went home to share the devastating news with her husband but the reaction was unpleasant.
She told the court that she was denied conjugal rights for almost two years. "Me and my husband started sleeping in separate beds. We had a misunderstanding and acrimonious conflicts as he was suspecting that I was cheating on him," she revealed.
She added that her husband tested HIV negative but when she tried to seek confirmatory tests, the nurse blatantly refused.
Sekgabetlela told the court that she had to enrol for the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme. Her body reacted badly to it. "I started to have nightmares, became dizzy and vomited," she said.
Sekgabetlela told the court that she suffered stigmatisation as the community discriminated against her. She told the court that when she tried to help at community functions, people would shy away upon her arrival leaving her alone in shame.
Gaofenngwe Loeto, who is also the mother to the plaintiff, told the court that her daughter suffered emotional abuse at the hands of her husband after the revelations that Sekgabetlela was HIV positive.
Loeto said she was called on numerous occasions to reconcile her daughter and her husband. "I was usually called by my daughter's in-laws to mediate at Sekgabetlela's household," she said.
Uyapo Ndadi, from the Botswana Network on Law, Ethics and HIV/AIDS (BONELA) represents Sekgabetlela, while the defendants being the Attorney General and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, are represented by Charles Gulubane.
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