06 Feb 2020

Molepolole senior magistrate, Ms Kefilwe Resheng has castigated people who report and withdraw threat to kill cases, saying that affected disposal of cases. 

Magistrate Resheng expressed her displeasure following a proposal for withdrawal of a threat to kill case lodged by Tshepo Nthokgo of Lekgwapheng in Molepolole, who had accused her 44-year-old boyfriend, Themba Mosarwa of threatening to kill her sometime in October 2019 at Borakalalo ward.

The decision to withdraw the matter worried the magistrate as such withdrawals were becoming rife in Kweneng District.  

“I am also worried that threat to kill cases are brought to court in large numbers in this district, and the manner in which they are registered is the very same way in which they are withdrawn, let us be serious and decide what we want,” she advised. 

She further warned individuals who decide to report threat to kill cases to do so with the knowledge that they will not be allowed to easily withdraw them. 

In a separate incident, a 39-year-old man of Matagatshe near Serinane, who is accused of setting alight his girlfriend’s two houses and destroying property therein, shocked the court when he bluntly said he committed the offence because the woman was cheating on him.

Olebile Khudu told Magistrate Resheng that he deliberately set his girlfriend Gomotsegang Khumo’s belongings alight because she had no time for him, but for the other men.

Magistrate Resheng had wanted the accused to brief the court on what his defence was, after he accepted the statement from all the five witnesses, including the investigating officer, but he did  not budge. “I destroyed the house that I built in my girlfriend’s plot at Serinane and I do not regret my action,” maintained Khudu.

The accused maintained his stance when the magistrate wanted to establish whether he was serious about his action of destroying property to punish the girlfriend for cheating.

Asked whether he was aware of the gravity of the offence he had committed, Khudu responded in the affirmative, saying there was nothing he could do to reverse the damage. ENDS