Magesh Walks Free

Seven years of stress, seven years of fear that he might be hanged or spend his rest of his life in prison came to a happy ending for kwaito star Tokollo “Magesh” Tshabalala.

Magesh was acquitted on Friday (29 Feb) Tshabalala after the magistrate said the police didn't do their investigation properly. Magesh's trial started on Wednesday (27 Feb) at the Village Magistrate Court in Gaborone, the investigating officer, Inspector Moses Serumota, gave a contradictory version of how the accident occurred, which prompted Magistrate Lot Moroka to ask him to submit the true version of events.

Tshabalala had been accused of causing the death of Botswana business woman Maria Monyatsi and South African Tumelo Desmond Monaisa due to his “dangerous driving”. The incident took place in Mogoditshane village near Gaborone on March 17 2001, when Tshabalala was alleged to have been driving - Bissau Gaobakwe's new silver BMW 330ci convertible, which had no number plates. Tshabalala's skull was cracked in the accident and he had to be flown to Johannesburg for medical attention. Monaisa, who was in the same car, died weeks later in a Johannesburg hospital.

Kebonye Tsiaka (39) a taxi driver from ­Ledumadumane, lost consciousness in the witness box while being cross-examined by defence counsel Colin Garvey.

Garvey had just asked Tsiaka to explain why he had joined the busy Willie Sebone main road while a red Ford Laser, driven by Monyatsi, was just 10m to 15m away. It was at this crucial moment that the ­defence started to punch holes in the state's case against Tshabalala.

According to reports, during the trial Gaobakwe, an important state witness, disappeared moments before he was to give evidence. Magistrate Lot Moroka issued a warrant for his arrest. Garvey, instructed by Advocate Billy Gundelfinger, and then grilled investigating officer Moses Serumola for his “shoddy work”.

This came after Serumola failed to ­mention during his evidence in chief that Gaobakwe also had disappeared from the scene of the accident. Serumola also failed to include Tsiaka's taxi in his sketch of the accident when recounting the events of the day. Garvey told the court that Gaobakwe was the driver and that he deliberately disappeared from the scene of the accident because he faced an attempted murder charge related to a shooting in 1999. In June of 2004 Gaobakwe was sentenced to spend a year in jail after being convicted on the shooting charge.