Testifying before court on Thursday in the trial-within-a-trial in the murder case of young Tlotso Karema, Magistrate Gofaone Morweng told the court that Sithole voluntarily gave his statement in Setswana. “The accused's outright choice of language was Setswana, he never asked for any other language,” Morweng said. The Magistrate added that he did not observe any visible injuries on the accused when recording his confession statement despite Sithole maintaining that he was tortured.
Morweng explained that the court interpreter, Mpho Raboditsheko, translated every detail to the accused in Setswana while simultaneously recording the responses in the vernacular. “She was translating in Setswana in every detail and she had a duplicate form in which she was recording the responses in vernacular as she was interpreting the questions to the accused Sithole,” he testified. Morweng further told the court that the confession was made freely and without interruption. “It was a spontaneous narration from Sithole and was not interrupted,” he said. “After I reduced this statement in ink, I read the version in ink and Raboditsheko translated the statement to the accused and he agreed to the confession statement which I believe they were in accordance.” According to Morweng, Sithole later signed the statement after it had been read back to him. “After reading the statement back to him, he then recorded his name on the statement and attached his signature and I attached mine also,” he said.
