Jealous lover escapes date with executioner

Lebogang Mosikare | Monday May 30, 2022 09:15

Dintwa was also convicted on his own plea of guilty for commonly assaulting his girlfriend, Baitsapi Ramarotse, for dancing seductively with Kgathegang on that fateful day. According to the judgement that was delivered by Justice Barnabas Nyamadzabo, Kgathegang also attracted the wrath of Dintwa after he saw Kgathegang and Ramarotse emerging from the lavatory together although the details of what they were doing in the bathroom were not revealed in court. Earlier, the court heard that Dintwa had previously admonished Ramarotse, striking her with a log after he saw Kgathegang touching Ramarotse’s waist and bottom while they (Ramarotse and Kgathegang) were dancing. Nyamadzabo said that the first prosecution witness, Vincent Kesebonye, told the court that the assault and manslaughter incidents happened when the Botswana senior men’s team, Zebras, were playing with their counterparts from Lesotho, Likuena, on Botswana Television. Dintwa, the court heard, had asked Ramarotse to kraal the goats and they left together. “According to Kesebonye, 15 minutes after halftime, Kgathegang also left saying that he was going to kraal cattle at his place.

Not long after Kgathegang left, Dintwa arrived and told his employer, Kesebonye that ‘I have stabbed Kgathegang with a knife at the kraal’. “When Kesebonye asked Dintwa why he stabbed Kgathegang, Dintwa told Kesebonye that he stabbed Kgathegang because he (Dintwa) saw Kgathegang touching and dancing seductively with Ramarotse,” said Nyamadzabo. Ramarotse also told the court that Dintwa had hit her with a log after he accused her of dancing in a sexually suggestive way with Kgathegang.

Evidence presented by Investigating Officer, Goitsemang Tshabadira, the court heard, was to the effect that Dintwa told him that he stabbed Kgathegang with a knife in the stomach after a fight between him (Dintwa) and Kgathegang ensued because he (Dintwa) saw Kgathegang holding his girlfriend suggestively. Tshabadira, also told the court that Dintwa told him (Tshabadira) that Kgathegang had followed him (Dintwa) to the kraal holding a whip (sjambok) and had cornered him (Dintwa) hence he (Dintwa) ended up stabbing Kgathegang with a knife. “It is not in dispute that the accused killed the deceased after the deceased provoked him by seductively touching his girlfriend. After looking at the evidence presented before the court as a whole, I am satisfied that there was no self-defence more so that the deceased did not have a very dangerous weapon. “I find that because the accused was overwhelmingly provoked by the deceased by romantically holding his girlfriend, his offence is therefore reduced to manslaughter and he is convicted as such,” Nyamadzabo said. The court will deliver sentences on both offences on August 22.