Former death-row inmate freed
Lekopanye Mooketsi | Tuesday July 15, 2014 14:00
Molefe’s sentence was backdated to 2000, from the time when he was arrested with his accomplice, Brandon Kgomotso Sampson. At the time when he was released, he had only served an effective 14 years of the 20-year jail term.
Speaking in an interview with Mmegi, Department of Prisons and Rehabilitation Public Relations Officer Wamorena Ramolefe said that every prisoner is entitled to a conditional pardon. He said it all depends on how the prisoner behaves in jail.
Ramolefe said according to the Prisons Act, every prisoner is entitled to a remission of one third of his or her term. He said that this means if one is sentenced to three years, then one is only going to serve an effective two years.
“We remit one third of your sentence. But if you commit prison offences, the punishment that is imposed will be deducted from your remission days,” he said.
“Everyone is entitled to remission unless if you commit prison offences,” he said.
Ramolefe added that he did not have Molefe’s file with him at the time Mmegi called, but said it is possible that Molefe was released on remission.
During the trial, it was revealed that Molefe had travelled from South Africa to avenge the death of his aunt who was killed by two men in Soweto, South Africa. Apparently his aunt was killed in a robbery. For the revenge evidence revealed that Molefe had concealed a firearm inside a television set when he crossed the border into Botswana.
In a previous interview in the South African media, Molefe expressed remorse for the crime that he committed.
“I killed someone. That’s unacceptable. Taking a life is not a good thing. I have apologised to the families of the victims,” he had said.
Molefe also spoke about the ordeal of his initial death sentence. He recalled that sometimes a prisoner on death row would be taken away. The other prisoners, though shielded from the scene, would hear the screams of the condemned man signalling he was on his way to the gallows.
At the time he was on death row before he was transferred to the First Offenders Prison in Gaborone after the Court of Appeal (CoA) commuted the initial sentence to a 20-year jail term. The CoA found that there were extenuating circumstances in the trial overturning a verdict by Lobatse High Court Judge Maruping Dibotelo.
Dibotelo had handed the sentence down on Molefe and Sampson, a Motswana, for the murders of two Zimbabwean men, Robert Ncube and Sam Hambarumo, in Mogoditshane in 2000.
Sampson was convicted of stabbing one of the two men to death while Molefe was found guilty of shooting the other deceased, according to evidence that was led in court.
Throughout his trial, his Motswana girlfriend, Motshidisi Banda, supported Molefe, a former freedom fighter. They are now living together in Soweto.
Had the Court of Appeal upheld Molefe’s death sentence, he would have been the third South African citizen to be hanged in the country.
The other two South Africans, Mariette Bosch and Letlhogonolo Kobedi, died by hanging. Bosch was convicted for killing the wife of her married boyfriend after being caught up in a love triangle while Kobedi killed a local police officer.