Moorosi Tsiane
THE trial into the 2016 murder of Police Constable (PC) Mokalekale Khetheng has taken a dramatic turn, with one of the accused, Inspector Haleokoe Taasoane, accusing his former boss, Senior Superintendent (SSP) Phahla Letsosa, of concealing the crime after it was reported to him.
SSP Letsosa was Officer Commanding Hlotse Police Station where PC Khetheng was detained after being arrested at a feast in Sebothoane near Hlotse in Leribe. This before he was elevated to the position of Leribe District Commander.
One of the accused, SSP Thabo Tšukulu, was in 2016 SSP Letsosa’s deputy whom he had allegedly left in charge of Hlotse Police Station when PC Khetheng was arrested.
Testifying as a defence witness and led by his lawyer, Advocate Zwelakhe Mda KC, Taasoane alleged that SSP Letsosa was attempting to shift blame onto junior officers to protect himself from prosecution.
Taasoane said SSP Letsosa, who testified earlier as the Crown’s first witness (PW1), was now falsely implicating him and his co-accused to cover up his own alleged wrongdoing.
“PW1 (Letsosa) is trying to implicate me because he himself committed a crime by concealing it,” Taasoane told the court on Thursday.
He said the death of PC Khetheng had been reported to SSP Letsosa, who, according to standard police procedures, was expected to act immediately.
“The death was reported to him and he should have taken immediate action by reporting it further, going to the crime scene and issuing a radio message. He did nothing, and by doing so he committed an offence by concealing it,” Taasoane said.
He argued that this was the reason the Crown called SSP Letsosa as an accomplice witness.
“He is an accomplice witness in this matter. Everything he is doing now is meant to protect himself by falsely implicating us before this court,” he said.
Taasoane and Tšukulu are standing trial alongside Inspector Mothibeli Mofolo and Senior Inspector Mabitle Matona. The four are accused in connection with PC Khetheng’s murder.
Contrary to Taasoane’s version, SSP Letsosa testified in May 2021 that former Police Commissioner, Molahlehi Letsoepa, and Assistant Police Commissioner, Tšeliso Moerane, hindered investigations into Khetheng’s killing in 2016.
SSP Letsosa told the court that after Khetheng was arrested in Sebothoane, he was informed by his then deputy, Tšukulu, that PC Khetheng had died during interrogation and his body had been left at Ha Mokhalinyane. He said he reported the matter to ACP Moerane, who allegedly told him to leave it, saying “the job had been done” and that Letsoepa would handle the matter.
He further testified that Mofolo later admitted to him that they had killed Khetheng. SSP Letsosa said he was transferred from Leribe to Police Headquarters shortly afterwards, which he believed was linked to his continued inquiries into the case.
He also told the court that Commissioner Letsoepa had visited Tšukulu in Leribe several times before the killing, bypassing him as the district commander. The accused officers — Tšukulu, Mofolo, Matona and Taasoane — are currently on trial for the murder.
PC Khetheng had reportedly been arrested on arson charges but was never seen alive again. Police initially claimed he had escaped from custody. His remains were later exhumed from Lepereng Cemetery in Maseru in August 2017, sparking public outrage and intensifying scrutiny of the police service.
Letsoepa was initially among those implicated in the case but fled the country in 2017, alleging that the then administration of former Prime Minister Thomas Thabane wanted to assassinate him. Although he was removed from the original charge sheet, he was later charged separately in February last year after returning from self-imposed exile.
The trial is set to continue tomorrow.