Iuze Mukube

State prosecutor Ethel Ndlovu firmly advocated in her final arguments on Tuesday for the conviction of Abel Mokalabatho (29) on rape and murder-related charges.

Arguing before Judge Naomi Shivute, she asserted that the State had proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt on all counts for the accused to be found guilty.

He is facing one charge of murder, three charges of rape, one count of kidnapping, and one count of obstructing or defeating the course of justice in connection with the death of 27-year-old Anna Geinamseb in Drimiopsis in the Omaheke region.

Ndlovu submitted that the accused raped the victim three times four years ago, before stabbing her with a knife, strangling her with a wire and dragging her body into a drain to conceal the crimes.

This claim is supported by multiple confessions the accused made to seven people after his arrest.

This includes magistrates Eden Iyambo and Aina Nangolo.

The accused had confessed to raping Geinamseb three times, first in a toilet at a cuca shop, and two times at his home.

He admitted to kidnapping her from the toilet, and taking her to his house by twisting her arm.

Witness testimony suggests that he engaged in sexual activity in the toilet with an unidentified woman that day. 

This is supported by a shoe which was found the next morning, which allegedly belongs to the victim.

The next morning, he allegedly stabbed her in the neck with a knife after she threatened to inform her mother about the ordeal.

Mokalabatho confessed that he strangled the victim with a piece of wire, which he fastened with a pair of pliers in his room.

He then disposed of her body in a sewage drain at his mother’s house.

The prosecution added that medical evidence points to the cause of death as asphyxiation due to being strangled with the piece of wire.

The neck still had a visible mark from the wire after her body was found 19 days from the time of the incident on 1 August 2020.

The accused initially told the magistrate that he did not know the victim’s name. He later claimed that he was coerced into saying so.

Mokalabatho subsequently changed his story again, stating that he and the victim had been together for over a year. 

The prosecution had submitted that this was a fabrication.

Mokalabatho’s mother, who testified on his behalf, said the same.

However, his uncle, who resided with them, testified he did not know about the said relationship.

The prosecution had concluded the mother was lying on the accused’s behalf because, when questioned, she did not know that the victim had a one-year-old child.

Friends of the victim said they knew the victim was in a relationship with the father of her child, and not the accused.

Mokalabatho’s uncle testified that the accused confessed to him that he had killed a lady in the presence of his mother.

The submitted evidence was further  supported by additional key statements that the accused had made.

He had pointed out the sewage drain where her body was found, the toilet [where the rape occurred at first], his room and where he hid the knife that he used to stab her, and that he had admitted to the victim’s parents that he had kidnapped and raped her.

Defence counsel Mbanga Siyomunji did not deny that his client was involved in the death of the victim.

 However, he contended that evidence did not support a conviction for murder.

He submitted that the State failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused had the intent to kill.

 Thus, the court should give his client a competent verdict of culpable homicide, rather than murder.

Siyomunji asserted that medical records do not definitively establish the victim’s cause of death.

 Thus, it is only the version of the accused present in court.

His version is that the victim stabbed herself with a knife during his argument with his ex-girlfriend.

Due to panic, he tied her neck with a wire to make it seem like she committed suicide, and then he disposed of her body.

 The defence added that there was also no definitive proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the sexual encounter was non-consensual.

Siyomunji asserted that his client cannot be convicted on circumstantial evidence, as the State failed to directly link him to the crimes.

He said the confession by the accused to the magistrates was done under duress.

Furthermore, witness testimonies were inconsistent, especially by the victim’s friends, who were drunk on the day of the incident.

In essence, the lawyer requested acquittals on the first five counts [murder, rape and kidnapping].

For the sixth [defeating the course of justice], he must be convicted, as he had admitted to said offence, he added.

Shivute reserved her judgement to 15 May 2025.

-mukubeiuze@gmail.com