16 May 2022

Francistown High Court has sentenced Gobuamang Ntsuape, 36, of Sepitswane ward in Ramotswa to death for murdering his girlfriend’s mother.

 Delivering the ruling, Judge Lot Moroka said the murder of Ms Sadie Kgosietsile on September 13, 2015 was premeditated as Ntsuape went to Engine Filling station and bought a five litre petrol that he used to kill Ms Kgosietsile hence there was no reason to spare his life.

Ntsuape stood convicted of eight counts which included one count of murder, five counts of attempted murder, one count of arson and that of malicious damage to property.

For each count of attempted murder, Ntsuape was sentenced to 15 years, while for arson he was sentenced to five years imprisonment . He was further given five years’ imprisonment for malicious damage to property.

The sentences for attempted murders will run concurrently while that of arson and malicious damage to property will run consecutively.

Passing judgement, Judge Moroka said there were no extenuating circumstances hence the law of the land should be imposed.

He said the court was fully satisfied that the sentence of death was the proper one for the convict, who had a profile of violence and had other pending death cases.

Judge Moroka further indicated that the boarding of a bus from Gaborone to Francistown on the night of September 13, 2015, the buying of petrol, the boarding of a special taxi to Block 9, where the deceased and his family were staying, the jumping of the wall into their yard, and the phoning by the convict to his girlfriend to check if she was inside the house and the attack on the family of his girlfriend, all amounted to premeditation.

“If the visit was innocent, Ntsuape could have notified his girlfriend that he was at the main gate so that she could facilitate entrance.

“It cannot be said that the accused was emotionally suffering from the losses of his family as he claims to have incurred during his relationship with his girlfriend,” he added.

However, he decided to jump the wall and subsequently phoned his girlfriend to find out which house she was sleeping in and this underlined the full intention of the accused,” he added.

He said the accused was not only armed with the petrol as he also had a match box in his possession to accomplish his mission.

Judge Moroka said the defence attorney, Charles Tlagae’s argument that Ntsuape acted on jealousy collapsed because he had no reason(s) to have committed the offences. He said the murder of the deceased was a cold blooded one.

He noted that it was fortunate that the primary target, Dorcus Kgosietsile being Ntsuape’ s girlfriend, managed to escaped death and later testified on the profile of the accused, which helped the court.

He said Ntsuape was not a candidate who could be given any other sentence apart from death looking at his life profile.

To attest to this, Judge Moroka said the accused chose to live a violent life against other people including his family members in Ramotswa.

Judge Moroka said the accused was mentally fit when he committed the offence as supported by the psychiatric report from the doctor who examined him.

Ntsuape was given three weeks to appeal both the conviction and sentence. Representing the state was the chief prosecuting counsel, Universe Kabecha. ends