Pretoria - The murder case of a taxi driver accused of allegedly shooting and killing his 32-year-old partner last week, has been postponed to next Tuesday for a formal bail application and to allow availability of his attorney.
His attorney did not attend the first appearance, for unknown reasons.
Kibi Josias Lebogo, 34, appeared before the Polokwane Magistrate’s Court yesterday charged with murdering Tshepo Rakoma, who was the mother of his three children, and the unlawful position of a firearm.
He was arrested last Thursday after he allegedly sprayed Rakoma’s car with bullets. She was sitting having lunch in a parking lot of a shopping centre in the Polokwane CBD.
He later climbed to the top of a nearby building, threatening to commit suicide, but police negotiators convinced him otherwise and arrested him.
The incident has sparked a public outcry and brought back into the spotlight the countrywide battle against gender-based violence.
Appearing in the dock, Lebogo looked relaxed in fresh clothing, but he kept gazing at and waving at the gallery where some of his friends and colleagues, including his elder brother, Inter Lebogo, were sitting to support him.
Presiding magistrate Janine Ungerer did not ask the accused to plead, but instead told him that his case would be postponed.
“Your case is postponed to May 18. You must tell your attorney that he must come back here,” she said.
Inter refused to speak to the media, saying his brother’s lawyer had instructed them not to do so.
In a turn of events, another suspect allegedly connected with the case appeared before Lebogo.
Khasamola Stephen Mathebula, 55, is alleged to be the licence holder of the gun used at the murder scene.
The province’s National Prosecution Authority spokesperson, Mashudu Malabi-Nzhangi, said that the two suspects were charged separately.
“They have two separate dockets. Lebogo will appear again on May 18 and Mathebula on June 13,” she said.
Mathebula is out on a warning, and it is unclear how his firearm came to be in Lebogo’s hands.
Picketing outside court were a few members of Seshego Community Against Crime and Gangsterism, clad in #NoExcuse T-shirts and protesting against gender-based violence.
Their leader, Retori Mamabolo, said: “We are here in support of the lady that was murdered brutally by someone she thought loved her. It’s time to have no excuse against gender- based violence.
“These people have three children together and now this man is in jail while he has (allegedly) killed his partner. This means these children are going to be orphans.”
Meanwhile back at the taxi rank where Lebogo worked, colleagues were still shocked and said they did not believe that it was the same man they knew who committed such a crime.
A colleague who did not want to be named said in shock: “All this man (Lebogo) ever did was to love fashion. He was very clean. We all didn’t believe that it was him who did this.
“We still think there may be a mistake, because even if there would be taxi violence, he would be far away from it. We didn’t think he is even able to use a gun.”
Pretoria News