25 Feb 2025

Death row inmate Passmore Moyo has escaped the jaws of death after the Court of Appeal set aside his death sentence and replaced it with a 20-year jail term. 

 Moyo was convicted by the High Court on three offences; entering the country through an ungazzetted point, grievous bodily harm and murder.

 Former Gaborone High Court’s Justice Abednego Tafa had, in August 2022, sentenced the Zimbabwean illegal immigrant to death for the murder of his then girlfriend, Mosianeemang Motswagole in Good Hope in 2018.

According to the records, Moyo assaulted Motswagole with fists and hit her on the head with bricks, while she had fallen down.

 The offence was committed on December 25, 2018 after Moyo saw and followed the deceased walking with her former boyfriend.

 Upon catching up with the two former lovebirds, Moyo started assaulting the deceased until she fell to the ground.

 That was when he picked a brick and hit her with it while simultaneously yelling; “what did you say to me about this man?”

A two-year imprisonment sentence was also imposed on Moyo for unlawfully causing grievous bodily harm to Charles Moalosi, who was the ex-boyfriend to Motswagole, whom he also assaulted, causing him to sustain a fracture on the left hand.

In appealing the murder conviction, Moyo argued that the trial court misdirected itself in failing to find that there were extenuating circumstances warranting the imposition of a sentence other than death as provided for under section 203 (2) of the Penal Code.

When passing judgement on the appeal, Justice Isaac Lesetedi stated that from the analysis of the case, there were several extenuating features, these being absence of intention to kill, absence of premeditation and provocation excited by jealousy.

“The evidence of the witnesses during the trial did not show that the size of any brick or stones exhibited in court was of any appreciable mass and what may have been a significant extenuating circumstance was that from the evidence, Moyo found the deceased in company of the ex-boyfriend and believed that notwithstanding his previous suspicions, the affair between the two was still ongoing,” Justice Lesetedi said.

 He said from the words that Moyo uttered as he assaulted the deceased, it was evident that he was consumed with range aroused by the jealousy of finding his lover in the company of her ex-boyfriend. 

The 20-year imprisonment is to run from March 31, 2022 and take into account any other period Moyo may have spent in custody awaiting trial. ENDS