Officer reveals events in shooting incident
Correspondent | Thursday March 3, 2016 17:09
Giving her evidence in chief, Lynn Ookeditse Agang, said during the course of her investigations, the third accused person, Thabani Manala, was with six other men who are also charged with the murder of Thuso Mulaladzi at Somerset East last year. Mulaladzi was a former physics teacher at McConnell College.
Manala is charged along side Nthoiwa Maxala (33), Tshoganetso Maxala (22), Tsaone Sedimo (28), Unaludo Madumba (27), Obonetse Sedimo (28), and Macpherson Robert Gaogakwe (49).
“All the accused were at Borolong village before the shooting. Our investigations show that there was a fight on September 13, 2015 at Borolong between Nthoiwa Maxala and the deceased and his friends. Nthoiwa and his cousin went to collect their friends who are also accused of committing this murder,” said Agang.
“The deceased and his friends,” Agang said, “fled to Francistown in their car adding that the seven accused persons followed the deceased using Nthoiwa’s vehicle.”
Agang told the court that the accused persons had a shotgun in their possession and they found the deceased and his friends at the Engen filling station, Nzalo Mall.
“Upon locating the deceased and his friends, the accused started chasing them up to Somerset East location where the deceased was shot from behind and left to die without taking any measures to help him. They then returned to Borolong. At Borolong, Manala dismantled the gun and put it into a travel bag while Madumba threw the remaining live bullets into a pit latrine in order to conceal evidence,” said Agang.
Agang said her investigations did not reveal where Manala comes from and the person who exactly shot the deceased. “The gun belongs to Nthoiwa but it was recovered from Manala.” Under cross-examination from the defence attorney Tshekiso Tshekiso, Agang said one of them revealed who shot the deceased but she was not sure if he was honest. “Nthoiwa is the one who said he fired the gun,” said Agang. Asked why she did not reveal that Nthoiwa said he is the one who said he fired the gun in her evidence in chief, Agang responded: “I did not reveal this information to the court because I was not under pressure to reveal that.
I was only revealing why I am connecting Thabani to the matter.”
Asked further by Tshekiso if this was not a case in which she was expected to reveal how her investigations are going, Agang said her investigations are still continuing. However, prosecutor Gasemotho Pitlagano objected to what Tshekiso asked, stating that the purpose of the mention was to reveal why Manala is connected to the matter.
Agang further said she does not have any reason to believe that Nthoiwa actually shot the deceased because he denied it first but later agreed.
All the accused save for Manala are out on bail. The matter is before Senior Magistrate Thebeetsile Mulalu.