Killer blames Mugabe for his troubles
Lebogang Mosikare | Monday September 28, 2015 16:18
This emerged when counsel, Reneetswe Rabosotho, gave extenuating circumstances that may have led Maphorisa to kill Vivian Monedi Moyo, 79, and steal clothes from his home in Block 5 here in 2007. Rabosotho said that without trivialising the seriousness of the offence, the accused committed the offence when he was 23-years-old.
“We submit that he was quite youthful and youthfulness exuberance may have had a bearing in his thinking. We also submit that in this case there is no clear evidence as to what caused the death of the deceased and subsequent stealing of clothes at Moyo’s yard,” Rabosotho submitted adding that the offence was not premeditated.
The accused, Rabosotho said, came to Botswana from Zimbabwe in 2004 as an economic migrant fleeing the harsh economic situation in Zimbabwe.“He survived in Botswana mainly through doing piece jobs. Therefore we submit that the harsh economic situation in his home country forced him to come here and should be factored in but we are not in anyway saying that we praise what he did,” said Rabosotho.
Further, Rabosotho said the accused was born in a rural place called Zimoto in the Masvingo district of Zimbabwe.
Rabosotho continued: “Being from a rural background, he never went to school up to tertiary level or had any formal employment in his whole life. As a result, he lacked the right mind of judgment to carefully distinguish between right and wrong. We therefore submit that the factors we submitted above individually or cumulatively had a bearing on the accused’s mind.”
However, state counsel, Nancy Obonye-Ebineng, countered Rabosotho’s submissions.
“We are going to differ with the defence when they say that there are extenuating circumstances in this matter. If anything, there are aggravating factors in this matter. The defence has said that the accused was 23-years-old when he committed the offence adding that youthful exuberance influenced him to commit the offence,” said Obonye-Ebineng.
She cited that in the case of Gofamodimo versus the state, the accused was 18-years-old but the court held that his youthfulness did not influence him (Gofamodimo) to kill the deceased.
“In the matter at hand, we submit that the accused knew what he was doing looking at the manner in which the offence was committed. Only a mature person could have committed the offence in the manner in which the accused did. His actions were carefully calculated hence we submit the killing was premeditated,” said Obonye-Ebineng.
In reply, Rabosotho said that the Gofamodimo case was different from the matter before court because he (Gofamodimo) carefully planned the murder and was motivated by evil motives to commit the offence as opposed to the matter at hand.
He said: “The accused should be given a benefit of the doubt because there was no premeditation. In the Gofamodimo case, he disposed off the body after killing the deceased, which is not the case in this matter. We therefore reiterate that there are extenuating circumstances in this case.” Justice Gaolapelwe Ketlogetswe adjourned the matter to October 22 for ruling in extenuating circumstances and sentence.