‘The police know who decapitated my girlfriend’

Five years since he was accused of murdering his then girlfriend, Bonolo Elizabeth Mapitse (Kerekang) in cold blood, Simon Badisa Kgowe has slapped the state with a P6 million lawsuit. This week, Kgowe whose murder charge was withdrawn, vents out his frustration at what he calls a ‘failing justice system’.

He is seeking P4 million damages for torture and P2 million for malicious prosecution.

On Monday, he briefly appeared before the Gaborone High Court for his lawsuit where he accused the police of torture and malicious prosecution. The matter was once again postponed to next year and out of frustration, he now wants to tell the media and the nation his side of the story.

Kgowe meets the Mmegi team at Block 3 area, the place where his deceased girlfriend was last seen alive. He seems uneasy during the interview, often pausing to stop tears. “This matter has taken away so much of my life. I have always told the police the truth. I did not kill Bonolo.”

Kgowe feels he was just a scapegoat. He tells Mmegi that he has always maintained this with the police who simply, according to him, failed to do their job even though some other names were mentioned. He accuses the police of protecting the real murderers and using him as a scapegoat. Kgowe says the police have ruined his life because he will forever be the killer boyfriend who beheaded his girlfriend.

“The police know who did this. They just wanted to pin it on me. A lot of people they interviewed gave them a name, a name which they ignored but instead focused on mine,” he said.

Kgowe alleges that his deceased girlfriend was killed for ritual purposes and consequently political gain.

Asked to explain further and provide evidence of his allegations, Kgowe could only say, “the streets are talking, they have been talking. This person is within the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP). It has been years.

I want my justice.” Turning to what exactly happened on the day and when he last saw his girlfriend, Kgowe says Mapitse had visited him as is a norm. He says she left Sunday morning telling him that she was going to church.

He claims that was the last time he saw or spoke to Mapitse. He says he had been in a love relationship with Mapitse for about three years and that he did not have any relationship with her family.

He says three days later he was arrested by the police and tortured. He was charged with her murder on August 2, 2018 and subsequently granted bail on September 26, 2018. In 2019, his matter was withdrawn by the police with the option to reinstate.

However, according to him, he feels he was unduly prosecuted by the State.

“I was electrocuted, beaten and abused by the police during interrogation. I was beaten so bad by the police who wanted me to confess to something I did not do,”Kgowe said.

He claims the investigators told him that they will rely on circumstantial evidence, which according to him meant that the police even at the time of charging him did not have enough evidence to tie him to the murder but were under some kind of pressure to pin him to the murder.

In his detailed suit, Kgowe wants the police to provide to the court all details surrounding the investigation as he believes nothing points to him. He wants the police to provide DNA exam results, results of blood samples extracted from his clothes. He also wants the state to give him the grounds of withdrawing the case against him and wants all statements as well as the alleged confession he made.

“Before this lawsuit, I have tried to get all the answers from all government departments including the Office of the President (OP) but we have been taken from pillar to post. Even after launching this suit, the State keeps postponing the matter hence my reason to speak out today. They want to milk this until I no longer have money to pay lawyers and this just disappears and it is not fair on me,” Kgowe pleaded.

According to Kgowe, ever since his arrest his life has never been the same. He says he is an entrepreneur, and his business has suffered since.

“I am a sound engineer that is how I feed my family. But ever since this matter, I have been struggling. I can’t go anywhere without people pointing fingers at me and being uncomfortable. I mean who can blame them? I was accused of murder, not only murder but beheading someone,” he said. Kgowe further told Mmegi that to prove he was abused by the police, the State has up to now refused to hand over his medical reports which could prove his injuries.

He says he is being let down by the very system which should be protecting him. He says the real culprits who killed Mapitse are still lurking on the street and the Police know them.

Mmegi tried to reach out to deputy Public

Relations

Officer

(PRO)at the

Botswana

Police,

Near Bagali but he expressed that he was constrained to comment on the matter as it is still before the courts.