Thabo Masilo�s lawyer rebuffs key witness� evidence
Sharon Mathala | Thursday July 31, 2014 12:02
Mbandanzo was in court yesterday giving his testimony on what occured on August 9 2012. He said although he was on duty at the Julia Molefhe Clinic on the day, he is not stationed at the clinic.
“On August 9 at around lunch time, I was on duty at the clinic when the nurses called me for an emergency. I was consulting another patient then, but I quickly rushed to the emergency I was being notified of,” he said.
He further narrated to the court: “I asked what happened and was told that it was case of an assault, that the patient was attacked inside her house.”
Mbandanzo also testified that the particular female patient, who he later confirmed to be 39 years of age, was bleeding heavily and was in the company of relatives and police officers when they arrived at the clinic.
“She could not talk properly and she was bleeding excessively,” he said. The doctor also told the court that when examining the patient, he noticed three deep wounds on her face. “As I tried to stop the bleeding I noticed three wounds: one cut which was around 2 cm was on her left eye lid, the other wound 3 cm deep was around her nose and the last one, which was the worst of them was on her head, it was bleeding profusely and could have been about 5 cm deep,” Mbandanzo said.
Court proceedings where cut short after Ngakayagae refused to cross-examine the doctor saying that during his testimony, Mbandanzo said that he attended to the patient on August 9 whilst the stamp on the medical report shows a different date.
“ The date of the stamp on the medical report is dated August 10, 2012 whilst the doctor says he attended the female patient on August 9, 2012,” Ngakayagae submitted.
Masilo’s lawyer then said he would not cross-examine the witness because doing so would be legitimising the injustices by the prosecution. He also submitted to the presiding Magistrate Chief Magistrate Linah Oahile-Mokibe that it is, “improper, unprocedural and unlawful” for the state to submit a medical report that does not coincide with the date that the doctor reportedly attended the said patient. Ngakayagae also argued that the witness never mentioned to court that he was delievering the report as part of his evidence.
“ The prosecution believes they have the right to act outside the rules of evidence and procedure, and the court is seeming to approve the position by the prosecution by allowing them to act outside the rules,” he said.
The State alleges that the 22-year-old former Botho University student raped and robbed a woman in her Phase IV home on August 9, 2012, causing her grievous bodily harm in the process. He is also alleged to have stolen property including a Samsung and a Nokia cellphone.
In a separate case, Masilo is separately charged with the murder of a 17-year-old St. Joseph’s College female student on November 16 ,2012, in a sensational case that dominated newspaper headlines, with pictures of his alleged bloody capture going viral on social media.