He said Masisi should do this as a way of setting a bargaining tool for another death row inmate elsewhere, Lesedi Molapisi. Molapisi was arrested for drug trafficking back in 2022 at Bangladesh's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport after being found in possession of over 3.145kg of heroin. As per media reports in that country, she had arrived at the airport on a Qatar Airways flight from South Africa via Doha, Qatar. Last week a Bangladesh news agency, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), reported that a Dhaka court awarded Molapisi the death penalty.
Following the news of the sentence, Masisi made a public announcement that government would back Molapisi in her appeal. “What is left is an appeal. We will facilitate and provide counselling to the family. Provide some sort of financial support to enable the final appeal, as is led by the international human rights agency, Amnesty International,” he had said. This was also confirmed by Botswana’s High Commissioner to India, Gilbert Mangole who told RB1 news that he had consulted with Molapisi’s lawyer and that an appeal has been submitted. Now, in a letter to the President, Kgafela II pleads that Masisi should also pardon all death row inmates in Botswana. “Energy is never destroyed. It changes form. What goes around comes around. Cruelty begets cruelty. Death calls upon death. You commit an act of cruelty on this human soul today. A few days or months later you see cruelty manifest somewhere within your community,” Kgafela II tells Masisi about the laws of the universe.
