CRI/T/47/99

IN
THE HIGH COURT OF LESOTHO

HELD
AT BUTHA-BUTHE

In
the Matter Between:-

REX

V

TLALI
MATASANE

JUDGMENT

Delivered
by the Honourable Madam Justice N. Majara

on
the 7^th
July 2008

The accused in
this case appeared before me facing charges in regard to the murder
of his wife Matseisang Matasane sometime in 1995.
After the
indictment was read and explained to him he pleaded guilty to the
charge of culpable homicide and the Crown accepted
the plea.

A brief outline of
the admitted facts is that on the date in question, the accused was
seen trying to help extricate the deceased
from a fence wherein she
was caught and he called out to P.W.1 who was passing by and informed
him that his wife had fainted.
When P.W.1 reached them and examined
her, he noticed that accused’ wife was already dead. It is at
that moment that he noticed
a stick (thupa) which accused admitted he
had used to ‘chastise’ his wife. It is common cause that
the accused was
intoxicated.

It is also common
cause that the accused who works in the RSA had on previous occasions
had several confrontations with his late
wife over her alleged
mismanagement of the joint estate finances. On the fateful day, the
accused had reportedly gone to fetch
his wife from a shop where she
had been drinking and this was reportedly the cause of the
confrontation.

The accused was
later handed over to the police together with the stick which has
allegedly since disappeared. An autopsy was carried
out and in terms
of the contents of the post mortem report death was due to a severe
head injury.

Verdict:-
Guilty of culpable homicide

Sentence

In passing
sentence, the Court took account of the following factors:-

That accused is a
first offender with no record of previous convictions; he pleaded
guilty, which factor is usually considered a
sign of remorse; he used
a small rather than stout stick albeit it still having caused a fatal
injury; this matter has been hanging
over his head for well neigh
thirteen (13) years; he has been left to single-handedly raise his
two (2) minor children and is the
sole bread-winner of his family.

On the other hand,
the Court also sought to strike a balance between the above stated
factors and the interests of justice especially
the interests of the
family of the deceased, those of the community and society at large.
It therefore considered the following
factors:-

That the accused
had no right to assault his wife and while he admittedly beat her
with a light stick (thupa), he obviously used
considerable force that
resulted in her being seriously injured and dying as a result; the
accused was negligent in his conduct
and should have known better
than to imbibe and confront his wife whilst in that state; the public
needs to have confidence in
the courts and the justice system that
crime will never go unpunished which factor should be realized by
inter
alia,
imposition of appropriate punishment in deserving cases, as this will
also discourage self-help; the Court ‘s displeasure
at the
ever-increasing easy resort to violence by some members of society in
handling common problems and the casual manner in
which many lives
are taken away on a daily basis and for which it should accordingly
show its disapproval.

It is on the basis
of all the above factors that this Court finds that the punishment
that would meet the justice of this case would
be the for the accused
to pay a fine of Five (5) Thousand Maloti (M5
000. 00)
or imprisonment for a period of Five years, two (2) of which are
respectively suspended for three (3) years on condition that he
is
not convicted of any offence involving violence committed during the
period of suspension.

My assessors
agree.

N.
MAJARA

JUDGE

For
the Crown : Mr. Mahao

For
the Defence : Mr L. Molapo