Africa-Press – Lesotho. FORMER Leribe District Police Commander, Senior Superintendent (SSP) Thabo Tšukulu, has distanced himself from the March 2016 killing of Police Constable (PC) Mokalekale Khetheng, telling the High Court that he had neither arrested nor seen the slain officer on the day he went missing.
Testifying as the second defence witness before Justice Charles Hungwe, SSP Tšukulu said he never met PC Khetheng on the day of his disappearance.
Continuing his testimony on Monday and Tuesday this week, he explained that he had instructed his subordinates to tell Khetheng to wait for him — only to return from lunch and find him gone.
“In March 2016, I was acting as the District Police Commander (DISPOL) because the then DISPOL, Senior Superintendent Letsosa, was ill and off duty from the 1st to the 27th,” SSP Tšukulu told the court.
“I received a call from Mokhotlong DISPOL, SSP Makara, who said there was a police officer, Mokalekale Khetheng, who was not reporting for duty. He asked me to find him so that they could talk directly on the phone.”
He said he then instructed Inspector Mofolo to look for PC Khetheng at Sebothoane, where he lived.
“On 26 March 2016, during lunchtime, Insp Mofolo called to inform me that Khetheng had been found and brought to the station. I instructed that he be told to wait for me until I returned from lunch,” he said.
However, he said when he returned, PC Khetheng had disappeared.
“Upon my arrival, I instructed that PC Khetheng be brought to me, but he could no longer be found. Even later in the afternoon, it was reported that he was still missing. I called DISPOL Mokhotlong, SSP Tšeea Makara, and informed him that PC Khetheng had been brought to Hlotse Police Station, but I never met him because he had disappeared,” SSP Tšukulu testified.
He denied ever telling SSP Phahla Letsosa (the first state witness) that he had arrested PC Khetheng or that he had assembled a team to interrogate him — contradicting the earlier testimony of SSP Letsosa, who had been led in examination by former prosecutor Shaun Abrahams.
“It is not true that SSP Letsosa came to the police station that day and I told him I had arrested Khetheng. It is not true that I told him I had assembled people to interview him. I never had any conversation with him regarding Khetheng or his fate,” SSP Tšukulu said.
He further recalled that in May 2016, Khetheng’s father, Thabo Khetheng, and a relative, Lesala Khetheng, visited him at the police station looking for the missing officer.
“I told him that his son had indeed been at the station but was not arrested. I advised him to go to the charge office and open a missing person’s case,” SSP Tšukulu said.
He continues his testimony today under cross-examination by his lawyer, King’s Counsel Karabo Mohau.
SSP Tšukulu is jointly charged with the March 2016 murder of PC Khetheng and the dumping of his body at Ha Setho, on the outskirts of Maseru.
PC Khetheng had been arrested on arson charges but was never seen alive again. At the time, police officers claimed he had disappeared from custody. His remains were later exhumed from Lepereng Cemetery in Maseru in August 2017.
SSP Tšukulu was subsequently arrested and charged with murder alongside Senior Inspector Mothibeli Mofolo, Senior Inspector Mabitle Matona, Sub-Inspector Haleokoe Taasoane, and former Defence Minister and Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) deputy leader, Tšeliso Mokhosi.
Mr Mokhosi, who served in the Pakalitha Mosisili-led coalition government from 2015 to 2017, was released in July 2020 after the state withdrew charges against him and turned him into a witness.
Former Police Commissioner, Molahlehi Letsoepa, had also been removed from the list of the accused after fleeing the country in 2017, claiming that the then Thomas Thabane administration wanted to kill him. He was in February this year charged separately after voluntarily returning from self-imposed exile.
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