State prosecutor Johan de Vries today during the court appearance told Magistrate Ryan Ishmail that the state will wait for instruction from the NPA to assess if the matter should be transferred to the High Court. De Vries previously told Ishmail that the nature of the crime needed to be handled and dealt with by the High Court.

Accused persons, which include Lebusa Makhotla, Koebu Motsapi, Seipati Ramatisa, Molefi Chele and Jabulani Machoto, are facing murder charges and they are all in custody after abandoning their bail application. The four, except Ramatisa, are alleged to have shot two DA members, Molokwane Mokgoro and Godfrey Mbalula, and one Lesotho national execution-style in Dinaweng in 2018.

The bodies of the deceased were found in an open field next to a construction site in Caleb Motshabi in late July this year. 

Mokgoro and the foreign national was declared dead on the scene, while Mbalula was rushed to the Pelonomi Hospital where he later died due to wounds sustained. Ramatisa, who is the girlfriend of Machoto and has a toddler, is accused of tampering with material evidence with the hopes of destroying it in favour of her boyfriend. The accused's mother, Ameliah Ramatisa, earlier in her testimony made quite a damning statement against her own daughter describing her as an "irresponsible" person. It was revealed in court that Ramatisa was arrested at a house, allegedly used as a hideout, that belongs to a "granny"  in phase 10 that she knew through her boyfriend. She was allegedly on the run after learning that the police were hot on her trail.

OFM News