"Send him to prison"

It has been more than four years since Neelo Kgosikwena, 51, of Moshupa, lost her two daughters after their sister’s ex-boyfriend torched the house they were sleeping in.

The mother was also inside when the incident happened. Last week, during re-examination before Gaborone High Court Judge, Justice Sigh Walia, Kgosikwena burst into tears as she could not contain herself when she saw the accused, Gaone Molwalefe, a former science teacher at Mookami Junior School in Kanye. Molwalefe denied ever torching the family or the house on that fateful night. He told Justice Walia that there was no bad blood between him and his ex-girlfriend, Kealeboga Siwane, who has since got married.

“We stayed together at my place at one point. On that day, we even went together to her mother’s house in Moshupa to fix the roofing of her house and bought her food items,” he said, stressing that there was no tension between them.He said that on that fateful early September 27, 2012 night, “My car caught fire and I didn’t know where it came from.” Kgosikwena says Molwalefe and her daughter have a child of whom they shared custody. She said that when the accused and her daughter came together with the child on that afternoon, she asked them to fix part of her house that had been destroyed by the rain, and that they had come with Molwalefe’s cousin, who willingly assisted.

“After that, he left with his cousin, showing no signs of anger,” she said. She revealed that her daughter was then a nurse in Kanye where Molwalefe also worked, hence he gave her a ride with the child to Moshupa. She said their relationship had ended three months before, and that parents were involved in the decision. Kgosikwena told court that at around midnight, she heard voices in the other room and went to enquire what was going on. On arrival, she was told that the accused person said he came for his child and by that time her other deceased child had taken the child to the neighbours. When the accused realised that she was calling the police, he took off in his car, she said.

At around 3am she heard the sound of a car and its lights penetrated through her room. She woke up to see who it was, only to see Molwalefe holding a screw driver, fiddling the door with it. She also saw something like a small cylinder in front of him, connected to something like a gun.

Upon gaining entrance into the house, the accused allegedly ‘pulled the trigger’ of that cylinder, leaving the old woman burning, and she screamed her children’s names. “He splashed petrol everywhere, and used something that looked like a gun to torch my house,” she said. Two of her daughters were severely burnt and they died a month apart - October and November 2012. Molwalefe’s ex-girlfriend, says her mother, jumped out of the window and went to call neigbours. The fire destroyed property worth over P13, 000.

Kgosikwena is aggrieved that since the incident in 2012, the accused was remanded for a short period and has been granted bail since then. “He deserves to be in prison. He killed my children, and he nearly killed me,” she said, tears swelling in her eyes. Prosecutor Bantekanye Dikago told The Midweek Sun that they were going to file final submissions on February 7, while defence counsel Kole Kole will file his on February 21, and await a date for judgment. The accused person is facing two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and arson.