It's the accident, not my knife - accused

Tebogo Kgalemang
Correspondent | Friday July 16, 2010 00:00

It is alleged that in 2007, Tetuka stabbed Mbote Kaneng six times until he died, using a press button knife, following a misunderstandings over a home brewed alcoholic drink.

The deceased is said to have had a sip of Tetuka's 'Shake-shake' without his consent. The fight then started at another depot where they were drinking Khadi.

Tetuka yesterday denied before the High Court that he caused Mbote Kaneng some of the wounds that were found in the post mortem report, blaming them on a car accident.

He told the court that the deceased must have been injured on the forehead and the thighs during the accident. It is alleged that the police vehicle that took Kaneng to the hospital, after the accused stabbed him, was in an accident and when ity overturned it killed the stabbed patient.

Tetuka told the court that he only stabbed the deceased on the chest because the deceased was threatening him.

'These other wounds might have been incorporated during the accident because I understand the vehicle that transported him had some rails in it,' he stated.

Justice Abednigo Tafa, however, told the accused that his idea could be brilliant but people who witnessed the fight reported to the police that someone was dead, not injured.

The accused responded that the report was hearsay and they could not rely on it. He said the woman who told the police that someone was killed in her yard said she was told by a certain man who had been drinking Khadi there.

Tetuka further said this was contradictory as the man had said that he told the shebeen lady that the person had been injured not dead.

The other witness, a cousin of Tetuka's, said that at one point the accused had told him that he wanted to kill someone and commit suicide.

The witness said that when they left the shebeen that night the deceased asked the accused 'to repeat the nonsense that he had been saying'. He said the accused then immediately took a knife from his pocket and stabbed the deceased. The witness denied that the deceased fought back.

When he responded, Tetuka said he is very aware that the witness had been promised something by the police because the witness was fond of causing fights by telling lies.

Tetuka said he was surprised by that witness' evidence because at the police station he had denied having any knowledge and the police threatened to choke him