1

CRI/REV/134/99

IN THE HIGH COURT OF LESOTHO
In the matter
of:

REX

v
LETSEMA MOKOALELI

JUDGMENT
Delivered by the Hon. M.L. Lehohla
on the 30^th day of May, 2000

You appeared before the Magistrate's Court charged with
rape of your own daughter who was at that time aged 19 years, and you
pleaded
not guilty to that charge, but at the end of the day the
Magistrate relying on the evidence that was led before him found you
guilty
as charged and sentenced you to ten years' imprisonment. 1
need not elaborate on the evidence that you didn't seriously
challenge
of the witnesses who gave evidence before that Court. For
instance there was the evidence of PW3 who indicated that she had
been
your lover, that's 'Mamosa, and that when she got a report from
PW1 that you had raped her, she

2 confronted you with her and then asked of you why make
a wife of your own

daughter and you vouchsafed her no answer. That's what
she says.

In argument before me you told me that she is not being
truthful when she says you said nothing. But you were given an
opportunity
by the Magistrate to raise questions indicating how lying
she was in that respect, but the record reveals you as not touching
that
particular question at all, at all. So the learned Magistrate's
Court cannot be criticised for having believed 'Mamosa in that
respect
and using this as one of the reasons why he convicted you.
Now at the end of the day too after you had exercised your right not
to
give evidence the prosecutor addressed the Court and you were
asked to respond to his addresses, and your response was "I am
guilty".

Now one may say one is guilty for a variety of reasons
which may even not be true. I can say I am guilty when I am not
telling the
truth. But where there is evidence which corroborates
that conduct or that state of mind of guilt then one need not look
far to come
to the conclusion that it is true that this man in
guilty. So my conclusion is that the learned Magistrate correctly
convicted you
of rape of your own daughter.

3 You were called before this Court because this Court
had some concern about the fact that you were not represented in the
Court
below. The sentence was heavy therefore this Court wanted to
give you an opportunity through your lawyer if you could afford one
to come and show why this sentence should not be confirmed in the
event that the conviction is confirmed and the Court cannot provide
you with a lawyer if you cannot afford one. But you gallantly
defended yourself, if I may say so, before this Court, yet despite
all that one cannot seriously find fault with the sentence that the
Magistrate imposed, regard being had to the fact that it is your
own
daughter whom you had repeatedly had sex with against her consent.
That is not how decent human beings should behave.

The Magistrate observed that one of the shocking things
nowadays is that there is prevalence of the disease called AIDS(HIV).
While
there is no proof that your daughter suffers from that
nonetheless she suffers from venereal disease. 'Mamosa is not your
wife but
you sleep with her time and again, and then you go beyond
that to sleep with your daughter. This shows you as a philanderer of
the
worst order. Thus the conviction is confirmed and the sentence is
confirmed.

You were given an opportunity to get yourself a lawyer
and as a result of that

4 time after time this matter kept on being postponed.
And one of the days when it was to be heard was the 31^st
of March, 2000 concerning which the directive I had given was given
as long ago as 22^nd of October 1999 and then the matter
was postponed to the 1^st May 2000 but on that day again
you pleaded that you wanted to get yourself a lawyer and you made an
undertaking that if you fail
to get one then we were going to proceed
as we have just done on the 30^th May 2000. That will be
all.

JUDGE
30th May, 2000

For Crown : Ms Sesing
For Defence : In Person