The Gaborone High Court has ruled that Zimbabwean national Jabulani Dube and his Motswana accomplice, Mokgalemi Malea, are guilty of the murder of former Member of Parliament for Mochudi East, Isaac Davids, stabbing him even as he was trying to flee from their attack.
Delivering judgment last Friday, Justice Michael Leburu said that the State had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt that the duo, who were employed as herdboys, intentionally killed their former employer.
He said that even though they claimed that he provoked them by assaulting them, State witnesses said that Dube insulted the deceased long before the fight broke out.
The judge ruled that the attack on Davids was not an act of self defence as Dube stabbed him multiple times using two knives while he was trying to run away.
He said that there was no evidence that Davids had a gun in his vehicle, as claimed by Dube and that he might have been trying to scare them when he uttered words that someone should bring his gun so that he can shoot them.
Furthermore, the court established that the police officers on the scene searched Davids’ vehicle and found no gun, something that was confirmed by the second accused.
He added that the response of the accused persons to the alleged provocation was excessive and did not match his strength as “It was a case of two men against one”.
The Judge said that the accused persons knew that by stabbing the deceased with a knife, they were likely to cause grievous bodily harm or death, but they continued to stab him all over the body.
“According to the testimonies of PW2, Accused 1 stabbed the deceased with a knife in his stomach, which is synonymous with the abdominal and chest stab injuries. Other injuries as recorded in the Post-mortem report, on the deceased’s forearms, corroborate Accused 2 and PW2’s version of events in terms of accused 1 stabbing the deceased all over his body,” he said.
He added that it was a malice aforethought for Malea to hand over his knife to Dube to stab Davids who was already weak and trying to run to his vehicle for safety.
The judge dismissed Dube’s claim that Davids had threatened to shoot them with a gun, saying it was an afterthought since the claim does not appear anywhere in his statement.
Dube was also found guilty of causing malicious damage to property after it was established that after stabbing Davids, he used a belt to smash the windscreen of the Davids’ vehicle on the fateful day of 13th January 2018.
Dube has been in prison since his arrest then, and Malea had his bail revoked to await sentencing on 6th November 2024.
Davids was killed in Sorilatholo village when he had an altercation with the two men whom he found drinking traditional brew, khadi, after they used his horses to travel to the village.
During trial, the two men claimed that Davids assaulted them with a log and that they killed him in self-defense.
