04 May 2022

 Prince Molatlhwa has been exonerated, from killing a man, who was alleged to have been having an affair with his wife.

Molatlhwa, a former soldier, had approached the Court of Appeal (CoA) to challenge the decision of the High Court to convict him for killing Mosireletsi Ricardo Ramokgothwane in 2011, in Francistown.
 The High Court had found him guilty of murder, with extenuating circumstances, and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment.

However, a CoA panel, consisting of Justices Leatile Dambe, Monametsi Gaongalelwe and Mercy Garekwe, last Friday found that there were fundamental weaknesses in the case of the prosecution.
 In handing down the judgment, Justice Dambe said failure by the prosecution to call certain witnesses weakened their case.

 The prosecution, she observed, did not call the station commander, who was alleged to have been the custodian of all exhibits being the pistol and its magazine, used in committing the crime.
 Furthermore, the officer who handed the exhibits to the station commander was not called and the officer who took photographs during the search and seizure of the pistol from the appellant’s car was not called, Justice Dambe said.

 She said the prosecution also did not call officers who were custodians of Molatlhwa’s car keys and there was also no evidence from officers who guarded the car at SSKA police station.

“This step was necessary, especially that there were contradictions between the police officers on where the gun was retrieved in the vehicle,” she added.
 Furthermore, she said the identity of the man who committed the offence was not properly established by the witnesses and there were contradictions on the complexion of the said man, as one witness said he was light in complexion, while the Molatlhwa was dark in complexion.

Another contradiction, observed by the court, related to the time of searching the vehicle, as one officer said the vehicle was searched between 2am and 3am, while another said around 630am.
 Furthermore, she said it was remarkable that two officers who claimed that Molatlhwa pointed out the location of the pistol, could give conflicting accounts on the issue.
 “One said it was retrieved from the steering rod and the other saying it was found beneath the radio,” she said.

 Justice Dambe said the police officers also differed on where the vehicle was parked, with one saying it was inside the police station, while another said it was outside.The CoA further found contradiction on the vehicle registration number plate, as one witness said the crime scene vehicle registration was B517 ALM, while the vehicle found at the police station was registered B559 ARS.
 Hence the court quashed the judgment of the lower court, acquitted and discharged Molatlhwa of murder and unlawful procession of firearm and ammunition.

Molatlhwa, who was represented by Mr Unoda Mack, was found by the High Court as the man who walked into Cannon in Francistown and asked to see the deceased, Ramokgothwane.
 After a tense moment outside, the man shot the deceased thrice and got into a green Opel and drove off.

 According to court records, the deceased was shot before he could appear before court in Lobatse, in a matter, where he was being sued for marriage wrecking by the appellant. ENDS