Murder-accused denies deed, reporting self
Innocent Selatlhwa | Tuesday June 27, 2023 06:00
Basupi shocked witnesses and family members who had filled the court gallery as he finally took the stand to state what happened on the night Tsogwane died. According to the investigating officer in the matter, Detective Mmaonyana Seitei, Basupi told her that he strangled Tsogwane with an electric extension cable and then stabbed her with a knife.
He said Basupi who handed her the knife and the extension cord further told her that he tried to take his own life, but the rope broke twice while trying to hang himself. He would then try to kill himself by causing a road accident, but still failed to succeed.
Basupi would allegedly then drink battery acid but still failed to end his life. It was then after the suicide attempts that he handed himself to the police. Basupi, a procurement officer at Tswapong Bokone Brigade in Lerala, however, had a different explanation of what happened, denying that he murdered Tsogwane and that he handed himself to law enforcement.
“On March 9, 2012, in the afternoon, Tsogwane called and asked that I take her to the salon and I obliged. She said she would be travelling to Kanye for a funeral with her uncle and we agreed I would pick her up upon her return. And I indeed picked her up the following afternoon from the same salon I had collected her from the previous day to drop her off at her grandmother’s house,” he narrated. Basupi said he would then go to his house before heading to Gaborone for drinks. “I was drinking Castle Lite beers at the Tsabong complex bars in Mogoditshane and returned at around 11pm. While on my way back, I lost control of the car by Boatle and got involved in an accident. After the accident, I wanted to get home and I walked all the way to Ramotswa,” he said. He added that when he got to his house, he found Tsogwane lying in a pool of blood and tried to wake her up. “I then called a friend of mine (Tsholofelo) Kebonang to see what I found. He said he did not have petrol.
I would call him again telling him that I was on my way to the police and he said he would meet me there. I then proceeded to the police just around midnight where I found about four officers and asked to see a senior officer whom I entered a room with and told her that I found Tsogwane dead in my house,” he said. On cross-examination, Basupi denied ever telling anyone that he tried taking his life or killing Tsogwane. He denied any neck injury and claimed his lips were swollen because of the accident and not ingesting battery acid.
He said he was shocked that the police and his friend would lie about what he reported. He further denied ever giving the police consent to visit his house in his absence and that there was never any blood samples taken from him. He also denied giving Seitei any yellow knife which was exhibited in court.
Basupi said he was all alone when everything happened and he had no witness to support any of his submissions. What witnesses said Tsogwane’s grandmother, Kegomoditswe Semathane who lived with her, said she last saw her granddaughter alive on March 10, 2012, when she told her she was going to the salon to do her hair.
The deceased’s friend, Kedibone Matlhape said: “The night before I heard of her passing, she came to do her hair and while we were there, she told me Basupi would come to pick her up and he indeed came and they left together. In the wee hours of the morning we learnt she never got back home and that she was killed,” she said. Another witness who took the stand was Gaone Mendy who said he was in a relationship with Tsogwane when she passed away. Mendy said their relationship would progress well until March 10, 2012, when Tsogwane would not show up for their scheduled encounter. “She told me she was going to do her hair at a salon and we agreed to meet at Pitse E Sule Bar at 6pm. I went there and an hour later she had not arrived.
I tried calling and sending texts but she never responded. I would then go home to sleep at around 8pm hoping she would come to my house if she did not find me at the bar,” he said. Mendy said he would get calls in the wee hours of the following day that his newfound love was no more. Kebonang, a lecturer at Palapye Technical College and Basupi’s friend and colleague in Ramotswa, also took the stand. He said on March 10, 2012, at 11pm, he received a call from Basupi asking him to come to his house.
He, however, said he could not because his car was low on fuel. “Thirty minutes or so later, he called me once again and told me that he had killed Tsogwane and asked me to meet him at the police station. I went there and he only arrived later looking all bruised. We went inside and told the police what he told me. He further stated that he tried to hang himself but he failed, he tried to drink acid, which also failed to end his life, and then he tried using a car but still failed to kill himself,” he said. Kebonang said he would then accompany the police to Basupi’s house where they found Tsogwane’s lifeless body in a pool of blood inside the house. Justice Reuben Lekorwe of the Lobatse High Court has reserved judgment in the matter for November 3.