A man who sliced off his pregnant girlfriend’s finger with a slasher will spend the next seven years of his life behind bars, Molepolole Magistrates Court has ruled.
Having pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm over the bloody 13 November 2023 incident, Mothibi Kgomotso, 31, tried to defend his actions, insisting he was pushed to the edge by his then-lover’s cruel behaviour.
“She was my girlfriend. Sometimes she chased me away from her place. Then three days later she would call me to go back to her. She only accepted me whenever I brought something home; when there was nothing that I carried, she mistreated me. I also saw some messages on her phone and realised she communicated with another man. When I tried to ask about the messages, she got angry, and it pained me greatly,” the father-of-two told the court in mitigation, adding he has learned to control his temper better since then.
Although he took into account that Kgomotso was a first offender, had saved the court’s time by admitting his guilt, and shown real remorse, Chief Magistrate Thebeetsile Mulalu was unimpressed with this excuse.
“The love relationship between the two had terminated by the time of the occurrence; bad treatment of the victim cannot be treated as an extenuating circumstance. The offence was planned and executed; the attack occurred in full view of the complainant’s children; she was six months pregnant at the time. It’s a gender-based violence case,” said Magistrate Mulalu, noting such incidents were all too common in the Molepolole area, and thus he was obliged to hand down a sentence that serves as a deterrent to other would-be offenders.
Considering his tough words, it came as a surprise then when Mulula dished out the minimum possible jail term!
During the reading of facts, the court heard Kgomotso turned up uninvited at his now former lover’s place in Lekgwapeng Ward at around 2000 hrs, finding her seated on the veranda with her children.
Without saying a word, he struck, slashing wildly at her head three times. In a desperate attempt to protect herself, the woman raised her hand to block the vicious blows; in the process, her pinky was severed, while her jaw was cut open.
With blood gushing from her face and mangled hand, she collapsed to the ground, remaining motionless as Kgomotso fled the scene.
Having witnessed the ordeal, which was over in seconds, the victim’s 13-year-old daughter rushed to fetch her grandmother, who in turn notified the neighbours. Together they took the badly injured woman to the hospital.
Packing out the courtroom during Tuesday’s sentencing, Kgomotso’s loved ones didn’t get the chance to console him as the Bokaa ward local was whisked away to his new life as soon as the sentence was passed.
