Khoto sentenced to death
Lebogang Mosikare | Tuesday February 28, 2023 06:00
Khoto murdered Metlha in Marobela in 2018. During trial, Khoto’s attorney Kgosietsile Ngakaagae had submitted that his client involuntarily murdered Metlha in the middle of a nightmare.
In the nightmare, Khoto had relayed that he was in a fight with another person and as a result, he ended up throttling Metlha in his sleep. He said he only realised what he had done after waking up from the nightmare.
Delivering the ruling on whether there were extenuating circumstances that reduce the moral blameworthiness of the accused person in doing what he did, Justice Sechele said the onus lies on the accused person to prove or establish the existence of extenuating circumstance or on the state to negate their existence. Said Justice Sechele: “The issue of the accused’s mental condition looms large amongst other factors that this court has to consider. The accused has a documented history of depression.
Both Dr Paul Sidandi and other doctors called by the defence in the motivation of its case agreed in this regard. His condition was exacerbated by his abuse of alcohol. He was transferred from Kasane to Francistown on the motivation of Dr Majama who opined that he ought to stay closer to members of his family.” After he was transferred to Francistown, Sechele added, he continued to abuse alcohol.
“At one point his mother and girlfriend took him to a doctor at the Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital whereat they expressed some concern about the extent to which he was abusing alcohol. This court, therefore, accepts that the accused herein suffered from depression at the time he committed this offence and that such had a bearing on his state of mind.
The question that arises for my consideration, however, is whether such a state of depression was sufficiently appreciable to abate his moral blameworthiness for the murder of the deceased,” Sechele explained. For starters, Justice Sechele noted, the accused’s state of mind was chronic but governable. “He reported for duty at the CAAB and regularly entertained himself with friends. The accused’s state of depression notwithstanding, there is a lot to be said in aggravation. Firstly, the deceased was a nine-year-old girl who had done him no wrong. She in her round-eyed innocence exalted him and called him, “Papa”. The accused exploited the deceased’s innocence and lured her to a place far away from the safety of her home. His actions in this regard were calculated and planned. He had then, without any form of provocation, subjected the deceased to extreme forms of violence. The assaults on the deceased were brutal and prolonged,” Justice Sechele said.
Justice Sechele said: “I find the accused’s actions, done to a young child, to be so morally reprehensible as to eclipse any factor that may be considered in extenuation. The court, therefore, takes the view that there are no extenuating circumstances in this case. The accused is consequently sentenced to death. He shall be hanged by the neck until he is dead. The accused has a right to appeal to the Court of Appeal (CoA) within six weeks from today.” After the ultimate sentence of death was passed, Metlha’s aunt, Masego Sibanda, who lived with Metlha before she met her fate, said she welcomed the sentence.
She said before Khoto’s death sentence, she had a premonition in which he was sentenced to death. “Today I will sleep peacefully. After this ordeal, my family prayed to God that the accused be sentenced to death and did not rely on traditional doctors,” said a teary and jovial Sibanda.