Lover died after fight over cellphone

Tebogo Kgalemang
Correspondent | Friday June 17, 2011 00:00

During his evidence-in-chief, Ishmael Bapasi told the court that things had been going well with his girlfriend of seven-years until last year when a third party came into their lives.

He said their relationship was built on trust such that they had access to each other's mobile phones.  But after the involvement of a third party, things changed for the worse.

Bapasi alleges that his girlfriend, Chevula Tshoganetso, was now involved in a love-triangle with him and another man.'When she received calls, she did not feel free as usual.  She always had to move from one place to another,' said Bapasi. One day when the girlfriend received a message on her cellphone Bapasi took it and read the message. According to him, the message was a love message, which read: 'Will u visit me tomorrow?  I love you so much and only death will do us apart.'

The accused person phoned the man and told him that Tshoganetso was his lover and further asked the man to terminate the relationship with his lover. The man responded that he already knew about him (Bapasi) as she had told him about their relationship. The man, however, agreed to terminate the relationship, but they never did that, according to Bapasi.

He said prior to the day in question, she had disappeared the whole weekend. 'I went to her place and she was not there.  I gave her elder sister the phone to call her and when she heard her phone, she cut the call,' Bapasi told the court.

After some two days Bapasi borrowed Tshoganetso's mobile phone and asked her to collect it at his house. The accused claimed that the man then called her number and when he asked him if they had not terminated the relationship the man responded in the negative.

'He said they had not terminated their affair and they were not intending to terminate it,' Bapasi said. He further told the court that when the woman came to his house, he tried to confront her about the man whereupon she advanced towards him.

'She asked me to give her mobile phone back and immediately grabbed me by the neck.  When I felt the pain, I turned her and grabbed her by the neck between the upper arm and the lower arm,' Bapasi told the court adding that the deceased was a giant woman despite her age. Trial continues.