…sentencing to follow after mitigation
Hopolang Mokhopi
HIGH Court Judge, Palesa Rantara, has found Tšenolo Thamahane guilty of attempting to murder?his former girlfriend, High Court Assistant Registrar Tebello Mokhoema, and of killing?her sister, Malechakane Mokhoema.
Thamahane, of Ha Mabekenyane in Berea, was charged over the 8 March 2025 shooting at the Mokhoema family home. He appeared before Acting Justice Rantara, represented by Advocate Katiso Nhlapho, while the prosecution was led by Adv Lehlohonolo Phooko.
Delivering the judgment, Justice Palesa Rantara dismissed Thamahane claims that he had acted in self-defense. She described Thamahane’s evidence as contradictory and merely self-serving.
She said the Crown had proved its case beyond?reasonable doubt. On 8 March 2025, Tebello left her home to attend a party at Maqhaka. On her way, she passed the accused at his home. While at the party, she received numerous calls from him. The two had previously been in a relationship that had since ended.
“She eventually picked his call, and to her surprise, it was her child on the line. In her opinion, the accused was using the child to lure her back from the party. The accused later arrived at the party demanding to talk to her, causing havoc and being chased away. When he returned the second time, she left the party and went home, stopping at a filling station on the way,” Justice Rantara said.
She said the accused followed Tebello and again insisted they speak, but she rejected him. He then followed her home and entered the house, where a quarrel broke out between him, Tebello and Malechakane, who told him they did not want him there.
“The accused then pointed the gun at the deceased and shot her twice, in the presence of neighbours PW4 (Tumisang Mokoma) and PW2 (Leabua Mothae).”
The court found that immediately after the shooting, everyone fled, including Tebello. The accused followed her and confronted her on the street, leading to another altercation until Tebello escaped to a neighbour, one Thakane’s home. The accused pursued her, still holding and cocking the gun.
“At Thakane’s place, the accused forcefully opened the door PW1 was trying to close. They met at the doorway, and the accused then shot her in the mouth twice before leaving,” Justice Rantara said.
The deceased later died in hospital from her injuries, while Tebello sustained serious wounds requiring surgery.
Justice Rantara said the post-mortem report showed the deceased had an entry wound on the right shoulder with an exit wound on the back, and another entry wound on the abdomen with no exit wound.
The accused’s defence to the murder charge was self-defence, and to the attempted murder charge, he claimed the shooting was accidental.
The accused testified that he went to Maqhaka because Tebello had asked him to pick her up, saying she was drunk. He said they were living together at the time, and he had also contacted her because her child needed help and because he required rations for their shack business.
He admitted following her to the filling station and being rejected. He said he later went to her home, where the deceased angrily confronted him, allegedly saying, “you are going nowhere, and we are going to beat you today,” and claiming she was going to fetch a gun. Although she did not retrieve one, he said she called the children.
He further claimed that in the presence of PW2 and neighbours, the deceased said, “this time I am going to shoot you.” He said he was bleeding from the beating and believed she intended to shoot him. He said he then drew his gun and shot her on the shoulder and stomach.
“The gun shot twice as it had a double-shooting fault, which he reported to the police, and the incident happened during the gun variation process,” he said.
He said he later went outside to seek help for the deceased and encountered PW1 outside the yard, but she fled. At Thakane’s house, he claimed, PW1 grabbed his waist where the gun was tucked. As he took it out to prevent her from seizing it, a struggle ensued, and he heard a gunshot before she weakened and fell. When other people arrived, he fled “confused and scared”.
Justice Rantara outlined the legal requirements for self-defence, noting that the accused had to show a reasonable possibility that he was under unlawful attack, faced imminent danger of death or serious injury, and used necessary, non-excessive force.
She found that the deceased was unarmed, and the accused gave “self-contradictory versions” of events that “taint his credibility and affect the reliability of his explanation”. Another inconsistency was his claim that he had no gun at Maqhaka because he wore track pants, yet he could not explain when or how he later acquired it before the shooting.
On the attempted murder charge, Justice Rantara said the Crown’s evidence was that after shooting the deceased, the accused pursued Tebello to the street and then to Thakane’s (neighbour) house, “cocking the gun in the process”, before shooting her twice. The medical evidence corroborated this.
These facts “discredit the accused’s defence that the shooting was accidental”.
She also rejected his claim of a firearm defect, noting that the ballistic report (Exhibit E) confirmed the gun had no faults and could not discharge accidentally.
After considering all the evidence, Justice Rantara concluded that the Crown’s case “weighs heavy, so heavy, as to exclude any reasonable doubt” of the accused’s guilt.
She described the accused as the aggressor who persistently pursued Tebello, entered her home uninvited, shot Malechakane in vital areas, chased Tebello whom he also shot.
She said the nature of the injuries, the weapon used and the accused’s conduct before and after the shootings demonstrated “direct intention to kill”.
“In light of the foregoing, I am satisfied that the Crown successfully proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused unlawfully and intentionally committed the offences charged. He is thus found guilty as follows: Count 1 — guilty of murder; and Count 2 — guilty of attempted murder,” Justice Rantara said.
Addressing the issue of mitigation, Adv Phooko requested that both parties present extenuating and aggravating submissions next Friday.
“May the submissions be filed on or before the 27th (Thursday), and oral arguments to be presented on the 28th next week,” he said.
The matter was postponed to 28 November 2025 at 9:30am.