TWISTED DEFENCE

In a dramatic courtroom twist, Tswelelo Kgaolo (38) of Palapye Extension 1 has denied ripping out the intestines of his former lover, Kelebemang Raletsholo (44), during a brutal stabbing in October 2024.Taking the stand in his defence, Kgaolo made a sworn statement his sole piece of evidence, as he chose not to call any witnesses.Calm and confident, he insisted that he found Raletsholo already bleeding and tried to help her, not harm her.“I went to Mmapharanyane’s house and found my girlfriend stabbed. Lichini Omphile was holding the knife. I took it from him and tucked it in my waist, but he took it back,” he told the court.“I set a Chibuku box on fire (for warmth) to try and push back her intestines. While I was helping, the police, SSG, and Med Rescue arrived and took her to the hospital.”He claimed police arrested him at the scene and forced him to confess under threat, even though he had told them the truth.“They said I was lying. They pressured me to admit to guilt. Yet I had a cut on my hand from trying to wrestle the knife away from Lesang,” he said.During cross-examination, the prosecutor, Otsetswe Lebipi, accused Kgaolo of lying and presenting an afterthought defence.He stood his ground, dismissing witness testimonies, including the victim’s, as biased, arguing they knew he was the boyfriend and simply saw him at the scene.“She only identified me by my clothes,” he argued.However, the court had heard the harrowing account of the victim herself in the past week.Raletsholo testified that on 18 October 2024, she had told Kgaolo she was going to Boikago Ward, while he claimed he was headed to work. She returned home by 7 pm, found that he was not there, and went out to Serumula Bar. Around midnight, she noticed the house key had been taken, a sign he had returned but was not home.She later went clubbing and returned at dawn to find Kgaolo at home, but he ignored her knocks.Frustrated, she called the police on him, and after intervention, she collected all her belongings from the house she had been sharing with Kgaolo.Exhausted, she dropped her bags at a neighbour’s house and went to rest behind an unfinished structure at MmaMpharanyane’s yard.That is when the nightmare began.“I heard someone shouting, ‘Where are you taking that knife? You want to kill someone?’ Before I could react, he pounced,” she testified.“He stabbed my arm, then twice in my breast. I tried to grab the knife, but it cut through my fingers. Then he sliced open my stomach. My intestines came out. He stabbed me again on the thigh and buttocks. After that, I passed out.”She recalled waking to voices and feeling paramedics lift her. Raletsholo was rushed to Mahalapye Hospital and later transferred for further care.Months on, her abdomen still throbs when the weather changes, and one of her fingers remains immobile.When cross-examined, she remained firm. Kgaolo suggested she was too drunk to identify him. She replied, “I knew it was him by his clothes. And I told him where I was going that night.”The court also heard that Kgaolo had previously threatened to kill her.Lichini Lesang Omphile backed up her version. He said he and others were relaxing at Mmapharanyane’s yard when Kgaolo arrived.“We did not think anything of it until we heard a scream. I looked and saw him holding a blue vegetable knife. He stabbed her in the thigh.I sprang to action and hit him with a bottle, but he came back, trying to stab her in the neck. She blocked him with her arms. I picked up a log and threatened to hit him again; that is when he backed off.”Omphile said, Kgaolo then handed him the knife.“I told him to step aside because people were coming, but they were too scared to intervene.”In another twist, witness Arnold Mutimgamiri revealed that the knife belonged to his girlfriend.“I had just come back from a football match when Kgaolo asked for a knife to slice donkey meat.I fetched one from my girlfriend’s house and walked with him to Mmapharanyane’s yard. But there was no meat. I asked for the knife back, but he did not return it.”Moments later, Kgaolo allegedly jumped into the unfinished house and launched his attack. “I saw the intestines fall out. It was horrific,”Mutimgamiri told the court, visibly shaken.Magistrate Lentlhabetse Willie is expected to rule on the matter in due course.

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TWISTED DEFENCE