19 Oct 2016

A father to one of the five accused persons in the Gaborone North Farms murder case has informed the Gaborone High Court that he and his wife were disappointed that their son was involved in a robbery incident.
Giving evidence in chief on October 18, Mr Nkadiletsa Sebego (70) said he was disappointed when he was informed by Security Systems officers, who came to arrest his son on the early hours of August 29, 2013, that he was involved in a robbery and a security guard had been hospitalised as a result.
Led by the prosecutor, Mr Farayi Mahwite, Mr Sebego said he later learnt that the said security guard passed away.  
Mr Sebego said on August 28, 2013, the family retired to bed at 9pm, but his son, Gorata Sebego, was not around.
At around 5am, he said, they were awoken by a knock from security officers who were looking for Gorata.
They demanded to see shoes that Gorata was putting on the previous night.
After dilly-dallying, Gorata gave in and took his shoes from behind the sofas.
They then took him away only to return later to collect a laptop.
Later during the day, the security guards and the police came back with Gorata who went straight to a table drawer in the living room and took out a purse that contained P8 000 in P200 notes.
He further took the group to his bed room where he produced P4 000 in P200 notes from one of his socks in the wardrobe.  
Mr Sebego, however, noted that although his son looked distressed, he never saw the security guards assaulting him.
Mr Sebego said his son was not working and did not own a computer at the time.  
Meanwhile one of the state witnesses, a senior security supervisor, Mr Walter Leaf said he did not recall using any violence when arresting on the accused. He said it was also not true that they broke the window of the fourth accused and used tear gas to flush him out while he was asleep.  
Standing trial are; Lebang Thabo Ntesi, Tshelang, Gorata Humble Sebego, Patrick Gaile and Mpho Mangwa. All the accused are on bail but accused number one, Ntesi, is in custody for a different offence.
According to the particulars of the offence, the five men who are all residents of Oodi in Kgatleng District, on the night of August 28, 2013 at Gaborone North Farms acting together with a common purpose murdered Mr Olebogeng Ramapulane, who was guarding at Tuwana Constriction site camp.
They were initially charged for attempted murder on Mr Liu Jian Hui, still at the same farm on the same day.
 Mr Liu was gravely injured and got admitted at Princess Marina Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. He left the country and therefore the charge had fallen off.
The accused are therefore now facing only two counts and on the first count the five are charged for armed robbery as the sum of P20 000, a computer lap top, a navy blue blazer and a cellphone were stolen during the commission of the crime.
They pleaded not guilty to the charge.  Likewise they pleaded not guilty to the murder charge in their second count. ENDS