01 Jun 2014

A state witness in a case in which Thabo Masilo is facing rape and robbery charges has urged the Village Magistrate Court to disregard defence lawyer’s insinuations that he is not a credible witness.

Under cross examination by the defence lawyer, Mr Kgosietsile Ngakaagae, on May 30, Mr Cyrus Longwe said it was disheartening to hear Mr Ngakaagae alleging that he was a pathetic liar who had merely concocted events to incriminate Masilo.

Mr Longwe, who recently gave evidence in chief, told the court in response that he saw Masilo in his house in the afternoon of August 9, 2012 at Phase IV location in Gaborone because they fought before he escaped.

He said the description that he gave the police about the assailant still held water and nobody could persuade him to change it.

The witness further responded that he had the choice to give the police the description of Masilo as he saw him and not the basic physical features which Mr Ngakaagae said he could have told the police so that they might have well easily located and apprehended the assailant.

Mr Longwe, who earlier told the court that he was a businessman and trusted in God, acknowledged that Masilo had a prominent forehead (sekopo), flat nose and a bean-shaped head from the side. He, however, said he did not see such features when he fought him because Masilo was putting on a hat which ultimately fell as he escaped.

Mr Longwe, a father of three, said he suffered trauma after the incident, and positively saw Masilo who was putting on an earring in one of the ears, physically fit and were of the same height.

Masilo also had the similar hat (Dobbs) he was putting on during the commission of crime, which left his sister with permanent knife scars and his house’s walls and floor splashed in blood.

In addition, the court heard that Mr Longwe did not sustain any bruise or injury when he fought Masilo, though Masilo had a knife which he had mercilessly slashed his sister with on the head and face, leaving her in a pool of blood.

He said though his sister’s clothes were torn and had blood stains, he did not hand them to the police because the trauma he went through made him forget to do so.

Mr Longwe said he could not write in his statement that Masilo held a knife to his son’s throat so that his sister could comply to his demands, because that would be mere hearsay.

Asked why he went outside and informed his wife that there was a serial killer in the house; Longwe said it was because he met Masilo in the corridor holding a knife dripping with blood and could have possibly killed his son and sister. “If I find a man whom I have not invited into my house holding a knife dripping blood such a man qualifies to be a serial killer to me,” he told the court.

He told court that he could not positively answer as to why his sister wrote in a statement that Masilo was muscula, noting that it could be probably that he was able to overpower her. Nevertheless, he quipped that such a question should be directed to his sister.

The case would continue in July, where the investigating officer, Inspector Mmilili Mashabile and a medical doctor at Julia Molefe Clinic in Block 9, Gaborone would take the witness box.

Masilo is alleged to have entered the house under the pretext that he was looking for a servant quarters to rent and also asked for drinking water. He was said to have used the same ploy still in Phase IV location where he murdered a St. Joseph female student and was caught at the scene.

After the news broke out, Mr Longwe said they positively identified him as he was all over the newspapers and television news. Mr Kutlo Tsekane from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) prosecuted while Chief Magistrate Linah Oahile-Mokibe presided.  Ends