Accused pleads guilty to manslaughter
Lebogang Mosikare | Wednesday December 1, 2021 14:08
Initially, Teko Bareki (44) was charged with murdering Ngunyane Letang at Jamataka village in the Central District of Botswana on May 27 in 2005.
However, when Bareki, who is currently in jail, appeared before Justice Barnabas Nyamadzabo, Bianca Ockhuizen from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) applied for the substitution of the charge sheet.
Ockhuizen told the Court that Bareki, who was supposed to appear for commencement of his trial will now be charged with manslaughter instead of the initial charge of murder.
After the charges were read to Bareki and his plea taken, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Bareki also jumped the gun saying he was pleading guilty because he committed the offence unintentionally when he was young and intoxicated.
At that point, Nyamadzabo asked Bareki what he (Bareki) meant by unintentionally because manslaughter basically means killing someone without malice aforethought.
Nyamadzabo then advised Bareki to in the interim just concentrate on his plea because if he still harbors the intention of pleading guilty and reserve all the unnecessary things as everything that he said may be covered during facts reading.
At that point, Bareki’s attorney Charles Tlagae went to the dock to briefly consult with his client.After the brief consultation, Bareki then pleaded guilty to the offence and said nothing more.
The matter was then adjourned to Thursday (December 2) for facts reading. Meanwhile, Bareki will have to seriously convince the Court whether he is still minded to plead immaturity or young age (28) as an extenuating factor for it to believe him when he committed the offence.
Recently, Justice Matlhogonolo Phuthego dismissed immaturity as an extenuating factor when he sentenced a murder convict to death.
The case involved Nthoiwa Maxala who now aged 38 when he committed the offence but was aged 33 when he murdered Thuso Duncan Mlalazi-a former Physics teacher at Tutume McConnel on September 13 at Somerset East in 2015.
Dismissing Maxala’s age as an extenuating factor, Phuthego explained that there is a whole body of knowledge in Botswana’s jurisprudence that shows that people who are aged 33 can no longer be considered as children.
Said Phuthego in the Maxala case: “When the accused committed this offence he was no longer a child... In the result, no exceptional extenuating circumstances exist in this case, the accused is therefore sentenced to death and he shall be hanged by the neck until he dies... .”