BOTSWANA: HERDER SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR WOMAN'S HACKING

May 12, 2022:

A 27-year-old man of Sefhophe village was on 11 May 2022 sentenced to death for hacking the wife of his employer to death with an axe.
Mmoloki Pholo was sentenced to the gallows on his guilty plea for murdering Kemme Mercy Sebolao, 44, at Bonnonyane cattlepost near Sefhophe on 14 January 2018.
Sebolao met her fate after her husband sent her to the cattle post to take water to Pholo who they had hardly been employed for a month. The court heard that before murdering Sebolao, Pholo spent the day raping her before he murdered her and thereafter attempted to bury her body.
Passing the ultimate sentence of death, Justice Tshegofatso Mogomotsi said that Pholo was convicted of murder with no extenuating circumstances. “In sentencing the accused, I shall take into account the gravity of the offence he committed. The accused used an axe to chop the deceased not once, twice, but thrice on the head. When the deceased was being murdered, she was lying on a mattress that the accused had given to her.
The judge further said that issues of gender-based violence in Botswana, especially against women for no apparent reason, are prevalent.
“This situation enjoins the courts to pass deterrent sentences. In this case, the accused is sentenced to death. He shall be hanged by the neck until he dies. He has the right to appeal his conviction, sentence or both at the Court of Appeal within 14 days from today (11 May),” Mogomotsi said.