Murder accused quartet granted bail
Larona Makhaiza | Friday January 9, 2026 12:49
The accused are 40-year-old Ranaka Primary School teacher Thatayaone Motlhanka, 35-year-old Thebephatshwa Air Base soldier Kabelo Mokokota, 36-year-old Ngwaketse Land Board computer technician Bakang Ranthoakgale, and 40-year-old self-employed Aobakwe Mokokota. In court this morning the village Magistrate David Nkao berated the State for failing to adduce enough evidence before the courts and alluded that time and time again prosecutions fail the nation as he granted four murder accused person’s bail.
Nkao was not pleased with the State this morning when he granted bail to the quartet.
They are accused of ending the life of Henry Gurupira this week after viciously attacking him at the Gaborone Bus Rank, before he was whisked to the hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries.
Gurupira was killed after the quartet had tracked a stolen phone and found it in his possession, and then assaulted him.
Granting the four accused person’s bail today, Magistrate Nkao said prosecutions are always failing the nation and highlighted that it is unfair on them to be the scapegoats for prosecutions’ half baked investigations.
“This is one of but many cases where prosecutions is failing the nation. It is worse that this failure is always attributed to the courts themselves just because it is the courts that made the decision,” Nkao berated the State.
In addition, Nkao did not mince his words stating that the public for the above reasons always scrutinize the courts but they are oblivious to how they operate.
“It is unfortunate that these go out to the public that know nothing about the law, but claim they know something because how do they make a decision without evidence? The court does not care about public outcry,” he firmly said.
He indicated that the State failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused persons pose grievous danger if granted bail by the courts as no evidence was adduced.
“The court is not guided by public opinion but evidence and this is case where the Investigating Officer (IO) was never called to give evidence and that is failure by prosecution,” he said.
He added that the court was denied the opportunity to dissect the demeanor of the accused persons whether they are candidates for bail or not as the court cannot with assumptions.
Despite State prosecutor Mhaladi’s submission that the accused persons might interfere with investigations, Nkao did not entertain the thought as he pointed out that they fell short in that too.
“It is not a shot in the hip to say the accused will interfere with witnesses when no evidence or facts were brought before court so counsel’s fear is not supported by any facts,” he said.
After pointing out that the State did a half-baked job in this case, Magistrate Nkao ruled in favour of the four accused persons by granting them bail.
“The four accused are admitted to bail where each of them are required to pay P5 000, provide two sureties that will bind themselves with P5 000 each, surrender their travel documents to IO, never leave the jurisdiction of this court unless IO is informed, shall not interfere with state witnesses, stay away from crimes, report themselves at Police fortnightly and attend court when required to,” magistrate ordered.
The case continues on March 17 for status update.