After enjoying freedom for a year on account of bail, a visibly shaken 47-year-old man was whisked off to prison on Wednesday morning after Extension 2 Court Senior Magistrate, Queen Mwanga found him guilty of a 2022 threat to kill charge.
A dazed Samuel Seetseng cried out, “Gatwe ke ya toronkong gompieno? (They say I’m going to jail today),” after being told that he would be remanded in prison until 5th September, the date for his sentencing.
Seetseng was charged with a single count of threat to kill on 26 August last year after he uttered the words, “Ke tlaa go bolaa a bo ke go katela, (I’ll kill and bury you)” to his on and off girlfriend and mother to his child, 43-year-old Lorato Oreeng at their place of residence in New Naledi.
The Court heard that Oreeng was sleeping in her one room house when their daughter told her that Seetseng was asking for her.
“My mother sent me back to tell my father that she was ill and therefore couldn’t come over to his room which was next door. That’s what sent him into a fit of rage, eventually saying that he was going to ‘end it all,” testified the 20-year-old daughter.
While he pleaded guilty to the charge, Seetseng confessed he didn’t know what had come over him when he made the threat, and proceeded to ask for forgiveness.
The court found him guilty and ordered that he be remanded in prison to await sentencing.
Seetseng sat with his head buried in his arms as he tried to make sense of his new reality waiting to be given a ride in a police van to jail.
