19 Feb 2015

Francistown Magistrate, Mr Dumisani Basupi will on March 6, deliver judgement in a case in which a former police officer, Atlholang Mujangi, is facing one count of malicious damage to property.

This followed the closure of the case by the prosecution after calling three witnesses to give evidence, in a trial that took two days after resuming on February 17.

In her evidence in chief, one of the witnesses, who is also a former girlfriend to the accused, Ms Segolame Tshekiso said the burnt corolla which is a subject matter in the case belonged to one Mr Letsweletse Matome, who is his current boyfriend.

She told the court that on April 19, 2012, Mr Matome left the vehicle at her residence in Mmei Secondary school and in the early hours of April 20 her son, Tumisang Tshekiso woke her up indicating that the vehicle was on fire.

Ms Tshekiso said although they did not see who set the vehicle on fire; he suspected that the accused was responsible for the act because on several occasions after she broke up with him (accused), the accused phoned her to enquire about the vehicle.

During cross examination by the defence Lawyer, Mr Kabelo Gaonyadiwe, Ms Tshekiso said at one point the accused told her that he checked at the Department of Transport and Safety who the owner of the car was and that the owner is a husband to one of his colleagues.

She further said she was confident that the accused burnt the vehicle because he even went an extra mile by using police facilities to establish who the owner of the vehicle was.

Another witness, Tumisang told the court that few days before the inferno, the accused invited him to his place on two different occasions where he told him that he was no longer in a relationship with his mother because of a new man who has a vehicle.

Tumisang told the court that the accused further told him that he would do something about the vehicle in order to frustrate his mother and the owner of the vehicle.

“I know the owner of the car that always parks at your mother’s place and as a trained police officer, I know how I will deal with him and the car,” the 18-year-old Tumisang told the court.Tumisang further corroborated his mother’s evidence that the accused was the suspect, and he told the court that because of what the accused told him, just like his mother he suspected that he was responsible for causing the inferno.

The investigating officer, Detective Sub Inspector Moswaane Koboyankwe told the court that based on the evidence he gathered from Ms Tshekiso and her son, he confronted Mujangi who denied but he laid the charge of malicious damage to property against him.

He said his investigations also revealed that the burnt vehicle was registered as B416ALO under Thato Madome but belonged to Letsweletse Matome and it was valued at P30 000.

Detective Sub Inspector Koboyankwe said the total value of the burned parts of the vehicle was around P4 600 and the parts included battery, fan belt, dashboard, left headlamp and the grill amongst others.

Under cross examination, Detective Sub Insp Koboyankwe told the court that there was no eye-witness and the only evidence that linked the accused to the inferno was what he said to the witnesses.

He said even at the scene, the accused’s foot prints were not identified because during the inferno a lot of people came to assist in extinguishing the fire.

The defence lawyer, Mr Gaonyadiwe put it to the witness that on the day of the incident the accused was locked inside the house by his nephew the whole night from 2300hrs to 0500hrs and the accused did not have any spare key and that the accused did not have the password that is used to access vehicle particulars in the DRTS system.

The Investigating Officer responded that the issue of sharing a key with the nephew was the accused’s defence and he could not consent to it because spare keys could be cut at anytime.

He further said not having a password to the DRTS system did not mean he could not access it because he could have “stolen it from someone” or even instructed somebody to make it accessible to him.

The defence is expected to file written submission with the court on February 25, and the prosecution will respond by March 3.Appearing for the state is Ms Tawana Kapongo who is assisted by Mr Goitseone Makgowa. ENDS