Raditshego to serve 30 years for two murders

FRANCISTOWN: Justice Moses Chinhengo has expressed concern that beneficiaries of murder victims are never considered when passing sentence, while the courts take the mitigation pleas of the accused into consideration.

Justice Chinhengo noted this when passing sentence on a 39-year-old man, who killed his married girlfriend and another person in 2007 when all three co-workers were travelling together on the job in the Okavango Delta. He said the time had come for the courts to consider the beneficiaries of murder victims. "Here he killed two people, who no doubt were breadwinners," the judge said. "And the second deceased was a married woman, although we do not know about her family and loved ones for whom she cared." Justice Chinhengo said this after the accused, Manonthotho Raditshego pleaded in mitigation, saying the court should give him a lenient sentence because he was the breadwinner for his extended family and that he is not well.