Insurance murder-accused denied bail pending judgment
Innocent Selatlhwa | Tuesday December 12, 2023 07:58
Tsametse, who had been on bail, was whisked away to maximum prison to await the verdict in June at the close of the trial. Tsametse’s fate was initially to be decided on October 12, however, because the State had not filed papers, a new date had to be set.
It was only in court last Thursday that the State filed papers and Ngwenya believed his client deserves bail for the delays. Letsididi would have none of it stating that having heard the case, the delay in filing was not reason enough to grant Tsametse bail. He would then set February 29 as the day a verdict would be delivered. According to court records, sometime in 2017, Tsametse to get startup cash for a cab business bought two identical Mmoloki Funeral Policies at the maximum benefit of P25,000 each.
He covered his two orphaned cousins, including the slain Arnold Ofentse. A Botswana Life Fraud Risk Manager, Nonkululeko Rutang who was one of the State witnesses during the trial of Tsametse for the murder of Arnold, said Botswana Life was the first to alert the police that Tsametse was a possible suspect in the murder of Arnold. “The matter was unusual and suspicious in that the claim was submitted shortly after the lapse of the waiting period. The six-month waiting period and the claim came on the eighth month.
Further to that, it was noted that the cause of death of the covered person was said to be due to murder as per the documents submitted,” she told the court. She further told the court that Tsametse received P50,000 due to the claims. Arnold, who was then a 16-year-old Form 2 student at Ledumadumane Junior Secondary School, was found with a slit throat under a huge Morula tree near Mogoditshane Senior Secondary School on March 2, 2018. By then, he was staying with Tsametse’s mother who was his aunt, Agnes Ofentse. As per what other witnesses presented, nobody had seen Tsametse with Arnold on the day of his death. It was after the Botswana Life report that he was arrested and released.
He would once again get arrested, about seven days after he confessed to his traditional healers, Kamogelo Keitholetse known as Rabeisane and his colleague and nephew, Lemogang Rukuye. The two delayed him in a ‘cleansing bath’ and called the cops. He then, on the same day, showed the police where he had hidden the shoes he wore for the murder: in the vicinity of a driving school.