16 Apr 2018

The long awaited judgement in the infamous 2013 Gaborone North Farms murder of a Security Systems guard is due to be delivered before Gaborone High Court on April 18.

Outgoing Chief Justice, Justice Maruping Dibotelo, who was presiding over the matter, is expected to deliver judgement after he made an order in January this year that the prosecution should submit its final submission on February 23 while the defence likewise was to submit its written reply by March 23.

Standing trial are Lebang Ntesi, Phemelo Tshelang, Gorata Sebego, Patrick Gaile and Mpho Mangwa. All the accused are on bail but accused number one Ntesi is in custody for a different offence. Meanwhile, Mangwa towards the end of trial joined him for violating his bail conditions.  

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 night watchman, Mr Olebogile Ramapulane, who was guarding at Tuwana Construction Site camp.

In the course of the robbery they stole items such as cellphones a Chinese identity card, a laptop, a laptop charger and a diary. All items were admitted before court as part of evidence.

They were initially charged for attempted murder on Mr Liu Jian Hui. During the attempt on his life, Mr Hui was gravely injured and got admitted at Princess Marina Hospital’s intensive care unit. He has however left the country thus the charge has fallen.

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.

Interestingly during trial some of the accused while giving evidence in chief and under cross examination admitted to have been present at the scene of crime at the time and took an active role in the commission of the crimes.  

The prosecution team from the DPP is made of Messrs Farayi Mahwite and Sharpe Dubula while the defence team is made of Ms Wema Isa now with BOCRA, Mr Isiah Letlole, Mr Maswabi Maswabi, Mr Eddie Babuseng and Ms Bokani Machinya. ENDS