16 Apr 2025

The Kgomokasitwa triple murder accused, Moagi Mokomeng was yesterday denied bail by senior magistrate Tshoganetso Atamelang at Lobatse Magistrate Court.

In his ruling, Magistrate Atamelang said the accused, 34-year-old Botswana Defence Force soldier facing nine counts of offences appeared to be inconsiderate in his application for bail. He said the incident happened on February 25 while the accused was arrested on March 3, adding that with barely a month in custody he was already making an application for bail. 

He said that reflected that the accused did not have empathy and was merely looking at himself and not considering that the bereaved family needed closure as the burial took place after the accused was arrested. Magistrate said in his bail application, the accused did not take into consideration, fears of bereaved family. 

“You have not addressed your mind to the fears that the witnesses spoke to,” he said.

He reminded the suspect that it was a terrifying incident for those affected especially that the accused was a public servant, one of his duties being to protect the public, adding that he used the service firearm unlawfully. 

“If you managed to get it from the barracks to execute outside of your official duty, certainly their fears cannot be unfounded. You will remain in custody until the matter is committed to high court,” he said.

The prosecution had also brought forward, the daughter to the late Ms Elizabeth Ramolala, Ms Thandie Ramolala, who pleaded with the court not to give the accused bail. She said the accused committed the offences while awaiting to answer for a defilement case committed on December  27, 2022 as they were served with court papers which subpoenaed them to appear as witnesses in the defilement case.

She said Mokomeng should further be remanded in custody as he might complete what he had started by killing the rest of the remaining witnesses as he had done with one witness, Ms Elizabeth Ramolala and attempted to kill others. She said other witnesses in the case were Happy Ramolala and the defiled victim. 

She said the matter was still fresh and were still grieving as a family and it would be painful to see the suspect out on bail after the tragic incident. Ms Ramolala refuted claims that Mokomeng’s mother was sick and not working adding that she was present in court and fended for herself contrary to the assertions made by Mokomeng in the previous mention. 

She said one of the reasons advanced before court by the suspect were null and devoid of truth as Mokomeng did not have a school attending brother whom he was paying school fees for. She said the younger brother resided at Kgomokasitwa and was always there. 

In his defense, Mokomeng had  reasoned that his younger brother was supplementing his Botswana General Certificate Secondary Education and would seat for his examinations toward the end of the year. 

He said his brother was home as  he did not pay for him because on the custody.

Mokomeng pleaded with the court to grant him bail and that  he shall not commit any of the offences put to the table.

Another victim who was shot in the tragic incident, Sergeant Thabo Dibotelo admitted to knowing the accused on account of the fact that he handled his defilement case after he received a report from Ms Thandie Ramolala. He went to Glen Valley, Gaborone where the accused resided and arrested him. Serg Dibotelo pleaded with the court for the suspect to be remanded in custody.

“We do not know his intentions at this point. If he is released on bail my life will be in danger because he shot me on the right leg and I have not yet recovered,” he said.

Lead investigations officer, Mr David Alakanani said the accused could not be a candidate for bail as he was faced with three counts of murder adding that amongst the deceased was a witness in the case of defilement, possible sign that he had started to eliminate all witnesses before trial. He said it was fortunate that he did not eliminate Serg Dibotelo.

“This therefore gives us reasonable ground to believe that should the accused be granted bail it would allow him to fulfill his mission more so that he had demonstrated that it was easy to get a fire arm from his workplace,” he said.

He said Mokomeng demonstrated during the time of arrest and interview that he intended to get a riffle which he was familiar with  to wipe all the five witnesses. He said they would be skating on thin ground if he was granted bail. The accused is scheduled to appear again in court on May 20. ENDS