The state alleges that Gasebonno Boitumelo Makgasane murdered Realotswe Kaisara, Segametsi Moleele, and Maitumelo Makwate between February 2 and 4, 2016, in Mmadiphala ranch in Moletemane village.
So far, three of the 15 witnesses that had testified on behalf of the prosecution have said that they are clueless why Makgasane allegedly murdered the trio.
The first prosecution witness, Eva Goilwang, who is Moleele’s grandmother, told the court that on February 2, 2016, her granddaughter told her that she was going to look for a job at Gosiame farm (also known as Mmadiphala Ranch).
Goilwang said she later called Makwate on her (Makwate’s) cellphone but her calls were not going through and days went by without her returning the calls.
The witness said that on February 4, 2016, she went to report the matter to the police at Moletemane kgotla.
“After some days, two police officers came to my place and told me that they have recovered two cellphones of which one was an Alcatel touch screen phone that belonged to Makwate from the accused’s girlfriend. Makwate was a child who always informed me about her whereabouts because I was taking care of her two small children while she was schooling in Selebi-Phikwe. She had a passport that showed that she had never crossed the border to South Africa or anywhere else, save to South Africa with me when she was young. After some days, the corpse of (Segametsi) Moleele was discovered by the police at Mmadiphala but to this day I still don’t know where my granddaughter is. The police only told me that her footsteps ended at the riverbank of Limpopo River, which is infested with crocodiles,” Goilwang said.
When asked by defence attorney Reneetswe Rabosotho, Goilwang said that she had never heard from Makwate save to say that she was told Makwate’s footsteps ended at the banks of the Limpopo River.
The second prosecution witness, Dikeledi Moleele, told the court that (Segametsi) Moleele is her daughter.
Just like Goilwang, Dikeledi told the court that Moleele went to Mmadiphala Ranch in the company of Makwate and her uncle Adolphus Makwate to look for jobs. She became very worried after she called Moleele for several days and she did not answer her cell phone nor call back.
“I later heard a Moletemane villager saying that a person was found dead at Mmadiphala and thereafter I went to the police station to enquire if it was my daughter or not. Whilst I was still at the police station the police told me that they went to the farm but they did not find Segametsi there. Later, whilst I was still at the police station, the cop who attended me made a call and I overheard a voice in the phone saying that a person was found dead at the farm. The cop then told me to get out of the office and I went home. People of Moletemane later went to the farm after hearing that a person was found dead there. My younger sister Lesego later told me that she found Segametsi dead at the farm tied to a tree trunk. The police later came to my place holding Segametsi’s Nokia cellphone. During burial, we did not see Segametsi’s corpse as it is customary because her corpse was badly decomposed,” said Dikeledi, adding that she told Moleele's two children that Makgasane had killed their mother.
Under cross-examination from Rabosotho, Dikeledi denied that Moleele was in a relationship with Makgasane because if it was so, she could have known about it.
Dikeledi said after Rabosotho told her that the accused would tell the court that although he admitted tying Segametsi to a tree, he had left her alive after they quarrelled about their amorous relationship that started in 2010 when they were both working at African Ranch.
“I know all the people who were working at African Ranch at that time but the accused was not one of them. I know them because I used to go there every monthend to sell them clothes and liquor. I later saw the accused when he was arrested by the police for stealing a car after raping the wife of its owner,” Dikeledi reiterated under cross-examination.
Dorcus Pheko, the third prosecution witness, narrated that she knew the accused very well because he grew up in Moletemane.
“On February 10, 2016, Kgosi Dialwa Motsamai asked me to accompany the police at Mmadiphala farm as their independent witness. The accused told the police in my presence that he took a hammer and hit Kaisara on the head and thereafter took an axe and hit him on the back of the head before loading him into a wheelbarrow to dump him in the bush. He unearthed the axe that he used to hit Kaisara on the head with and showed it to the police. The accused later led us to the Limpopo River whereupon he told us that he threw Maitumelo (Makwate) into the river. He also showed us an egg nest of a crocodile nearby. Across the river, I could also see many crocodiles. He also led us to the place where he said he had tied Segametsi (Moleele) to a tree and thereafter killed her,” Pheko said.
Thereafter, Pheko’s evidence led to a legal stalemate before Rabosotho cross-examined her.
Rabosotho made an application for Pheko’s evidence to rendered as inadmissible because the police enlisted the help of a very powerful figure in the person of Kgosi Motsamai to assist them look for an independent witness to accompany them at Mmadiphala.
This, Rabosotho reasoned, had an impact on how the police treated the matter in relation to the independent witness which impact will be detrimental to the accused because the police will not want to be seen as having disappointed the chief in the alleged murder cases.
Rabosotho added that the accused was taken to the crime scene in handcuffs and leg irons under heavy police escort. He was thus not free to deny what he told the police in the presence of the independent witness.
Justice Bashi Moesi will deliver judgment on the inadmissibility or admissibility of Pheko’s testimony on August 19.
Goabaone Motlhagodi represents the state in the case.
