29 Jan 2018

Four of the five defence lawyers in the Gaborone North farms murder trial have distanced their clients from the testimony given by the fourth accused linking their clients to the robbery and murder incident at Tuwana Construction camp site.

The lawyers, who want to show that their clients are clean and have no hand in the murder of a Security Systems guard, who was on duty at the site on the night of August 28, 2013, have told the presiding officer, Chief Justice Maruping Dibotelo that all what Patrick Gaile has said was mere fabrication of facts to incriminate their clients.

While cross examining Gaile shortly after giving evidence in chief, Attorney Wema Isa for the first accused, Lebang Thabo Ntesi, said it was surprising that Gaile previously told the court that the contents in his confession statement were not his thoughts, but belonged to the police, a complete contrast as he had given a similar version of the events while giving evidence in chief. She therefore said this alone demonstrated that he could not be relied upon as he was ironically telling the court two similar versions of the events, of which he claimed the other was made under coercion from the police.

Although Ms Isa put it to Gaile that her client had never worked at Tuwana Construction, Gaile, who in his outline informed the court that he has three children, but does not know how old they are except that the first born has completed Form V while the other two are still young, maintained that Ntesi once worked for Tuwana Construction in Oodi, where he was a builder engaged in the construction of Oodi College of Applied Arts. 

He said although he could have forgotten some of the incidents that happened during the commissioning of the crime at Tuwana Construction camp due to lapse in time, what he was asserting was a true reflection of what transpired during his presence and in the company of his co-accused, Ntesi included.

In the meantime, he told the court that although he was a decade older than Ntesi, he did not find it amusing that he complied with his instruction that he should guard one of the entrances while he (Ntesi) and Mpho Mangwa chased the fleeing security guard into the third portion of Tuwana camp site towards the Chinese man’s house.

He said there was no shame in receiving and complying with instructions from a younger person because he did it and is not in any way trying to exonerate himself from the crime he knows he has committed with his co-accused.     

However, attorney for the second accused, Phemelo Tshelang decried that Gaile wanted to appear before the court as though he played a small role in the commissioning of the crime even though he was equally active as any other person who was involved in the crime. Under cross examination from Attorney Bokani Machinya for the fifth accused, he concurred that Mpho Mangwa and Ntesi were never involved in a bloody fight between the security guard and Tshelang, nor did they see the two fighting. 

The case continues tomorrow. ENDS