09 Aug 2015

Village chief magistrate, Ms Linah Mokibe-Oahile, has committed Matshidiso Sesike to High Court to stand trial for allegedly murdering her boyfriend late last year in Mmopane.

The move followed a recent successful application by the prosecuting authority to have the matter committed to the High Court after the director of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) authorised the committal documents, subsequent to assessment of evidence. 

Updating the court on Wednesday (August 6) before committal the prosecutor from DPP, Ms Thato Gower, confirmed that as previously stated, everything was in place and that she had already served Sesike with necessary documents to familiarise herself with them. 

The documents included, among others, Notice of the director of DPP, charge sheet, list of state witnesses statements, post mortem report, her statement and medical forms for the deceased and hers.

In her previous court appearance Sesike engaged the court as she wanted to know her fate regarding her bail which she was granted by the same court. However she was informed that her bail was being revoked thus she has to apply afresh for another at the High Court, while in the meantime she will be remanded.

Procedurally, when one has been granted bail by a magistrate court in a murder case, the bail is automatically revoked when the matter is committed to the High Court. 

This therefore means that the accused will have to apply for bail afresh from the High Court, something which she has been worried about. 

The accused has a seven-month-old baby whom she has recently weaned. She is accused of stabbing to death her boyfriend Kabelo Louw of Ramatlabama village, with whom she stayed in Mmopane village on December 13, 2014. The couple, who had a hawking business at the Gaborone Bus Station, is said to have had a misunderstanding leading to the lady stabbing the man with a sharp instrument.

 

Sesike, who was heavily pregnant at the time, was briefly detained before being granted bail. She has since given birth to a baby boy and she briefly went back to her home village of Phitshane Molopo before coming back to continue with her business. Ends