It is on this day that the state is expected to present its finalised indictment on the case and request that the highly publicised matter be transferred to the Free State High Court for trial. The 56-year old Bayswater Captain, Moeketsi Lesia, initially took the stand on Monday, November 19, during bail application proceedings for accused one to three, where he testified that he did not know if his junior and accused number two, Bayswater Detective Molebatsi Mogoera, was indeed corrupt, but admitted that he was coerced to write a statement to the contrary by the police’s Tshokolo Phosholi.

Lesia said at the time that Phosholi not only instructed him to state that Mogoera was corrupt, but that he was also seen with documents under his arm at Windmill Casino, in the presence of businessman and accused number one Stanley Bakili. The Captain confirmed that Mogoera was in charge of a domestic violence case where Bakili was the alleged assailant, thus establishing that the two accused were at the very least familiar with one another. Four days after his testimony, Lesia was apprehended by police while running errands with his wife in town for his alleged involvement in the Siemens murder.

Unlike his fellow accused, Lesia was granted bail in December 2018, but is set to join 37-year-old Bakili, Bayswater police detective, Mogoera Molebatsi (40), court orderly Kagiso Chabane (40), disbarred legal practitioner, Karabo Tau (41), Information Technology technician, Sizwe Mpati (36), and Mojalefa Jali Molusi (29). The eighth man fingered in the case is self-confessed shooter turned state witness, Xolisile Mbebeto (39), who pleaded guilty in the High Court to shooting Siemens.

OFM News