Durban - A Lesotho man accused of chopping up two people and boiling the heart of one of them was born in the Free State, the Durban Magistrate’s Court heard on Thursday.
Lehlohonolo Joseph Scott, 26, said he lived in Ficksburg until he was 12.
“My father and mother were divorced and I had to go and live with my mother,” he told the court during his bail application on Thursday.
Scott, who has been charged with two counts of murder and one of escaping from custody in Lesotho, faces extradition to Lesotho.
He told the court he wanted to continue with an information technology and computer science course at a Durban college.
Scott told magistrate Vanitha Armu that he had obtained a bursary for his studies from the South African government.
It was issued to South Africans and the officials verified his citizenship before he was given the bursary.
“South Africa is my home country. I intended studying. That was my dream. I have always dreamt of studying in Durban,” he said.
“I have no reason to run, I’m studying. I can’t go anywhere and I’m sure everything the court tells me to do, I will do,” he said.
The State opposed bail, saying an application would be made to extradite Scott to Lesotho.
Scott was nabbed during a church service in Amaoti, north of Durban, last month.
At the time of his arrest Scott was found with a South African identity document with the same first names, but the surname Mokhele.
His Lesotho passport has the surname Scott.
“I was born at Ficksburg hospital and I lived in SA from 1987 till 1999,” he said.
His attorney, Shameer Goolabjith, handed the magistrate a copy of Scott’s birth certificate e-mailed to him by the accused’s sister in Ficksburg.
Scott said he moved to Lesotho with his mother after his parent’s divorce and when he applied for his passport in Lesotho he dropped his father’s surname, Mokhele, and used Scott, his mother’s surname.
He said he had returned to South Africa in January 2012 and applied for his South African ID in Carletonville, Gauteng, but only moved here in October of that year.
“Why apply for an identity document in January, and not when you move here in October?” asked prosecutor Blackie Swart.
“This (October) is the time they say you escaped from prison?”
Swart put it to Scott that he knew very well why he was in the dock. “It is because you were arrested for two brutal murders you committed in Lesotho,” he said.
However, Scott refused to answer any questions pertaining to the murders and the trial. “Can I be silent on that?” he replied to Swart’s questions.
The bail application continues on May 27 when the investigating officer, Detective Warrant Officer Noko Kgomo, stationed at Crime Intelligence head office and at Interpol’s Pretoria extradition desk, is expected to testify on the authenticity of Scott’s South African identity document.
Lesotho Director of Public Prosecutions, Leaba Thetsane, said in an affidavit handed in at Scott’s last court appearance that Scott and his mother, Malehlohono Scott, were charged with the murders of Moholobela Seetsa, 13, and Kamohelo Mohata, 22.
Scott, who was also wanted by Interpol, was charged with his mother after villagers found the body parts of Moholobela, who had gone missing in January 2012, buried in a ditch a few days later.
Police investigations continued without any leads until July that year when Mohata went missing from the same village.
An SMS was sent to Mohata’s parents stating that he had gone to South Africa. Police were later tipped off about the Scotts’ alleged involvement.
When they visited Malehlohono Scott’s house, they found two arms and a leg in the back of a Corsa bakkie and testicles behind the seat.
Lehlohonolo Scott allegedly pointed out a knife used to stab Mohata, a wire used to strangle Moholobela, and a pot in which Moholobela’s heart was apparently boiled.
Daily News