Murder accused complain about justice delayed

Lebogang Mosikare | Wednesday March 16, 2016 15:06

 

The accused are illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe: Suzisani Dube, 18, Felix Moyo, 22, Kulekani Maposa, 34, Perfect Moyo, 20; and Batswana: Ditiro Dikgafela, 20, and Nkemisang Tiro, 23, allegedly killed another Zimbabwean Botshelo Moyo at Mokgalo cattlepost near Mosetse and Kutamogoree in the Central District in March last year. Botshelo died at Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital where he was admitted after the accused beat him for allegedly stealing a cellphone.

The accused told Magistrate Jennifer Chikate who stood in for Principal Magistrate Dumisani Basupi that the police were not serious about the matter because they are not giving it the urgency it deserved.

They complained that the police have long promised to furnish them with a postmortem report but they have not done so. They also wanted the investigations officer to be summoned to court to explain how his investigations are progressing. Sergeant Lingisani Masubi had earlier applied for the accused to be remanded in custody to allow investigations to continue, adding that all the accused have been given bail but they did not fulfill the requirements of their bail conditions. Masubi said the postmortem report that the accused are asking about has been sent to the officer commanding for assessment. At the end of the mention, Chikate said murder cases normally take a long time to be solved. “There are many stages of investigations involved in murder cases. The police must be allowed to finish their investigations. The postmortem report that you are talking about has been taken to a higher authority within the police which is a sign that the police are making progress in the matter,” said Chikate.

She added that even after the accused have been committed to the high court for trial, it might take close to three months for the trial to start in earnest.

The accused are due in court on March 29 for another mention.