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Prosecution is yet to confirm the validity of travel documents of a Zimbabwean man, Eric Nyoni who is charged for the murder of his Motswana girlfriend in October last year. Nyoni is also facing another count of illegal entry into the country.
Appearing before Maun Chief Magistrate Theebetsile Mulalu on Wednesday, Nyoni demanded to know why prosecution has failed to validate his travel documents since he surrendered them following his arrest.
He accused the prosecution for unfairly handling his matter since he is a foreigner arguing that validation of his travel documents should not be an excuse since he long handed them over last year.
The Investigating Officer (IO) of the case, Nkape Nkape previously told the court that the accused person cannot be granted bail as he is an illegal immigrant adding that they do not know how he will be able to stay in Botswana if granted bail since he does not have the necessary documents to freely stay in the country
During his bail arguments last year Nyoni told court that he is not a flight risk arguing that though he knew he was an illegal immigrant, he handed himself at the police after finding the mother of his child motionless in their house.
“I had an opportunity to flee and disappear however I did not do that because I know I did not murder my girlfriend and that should be reason enough that I will still wait and stand trial,” Nyoni said.
Nyoni has since made several demands of an update for his bail application which he orally submitted last year November and was set to be delivered on the 6th December 2022. “I need to understand whether I have been granted or denied bail instead of coming to court and back to prison without any update,” Nyoni said but Mulalu assured him that bail ruling will be delivered once completed.
The 35 year old man who has been remanded in custody since October last year is alleged to have on that fateful night murdered his girlfriend, Kebatshabile Machaba at Sanyedi Ward in Maun.
Nyoni and the deceased who is the mother of his 1-year-old child are alleged to have on that fateful night at around 2300 hours had a misunderstanding leading to the accused person allegedly hitting the deceased with fists. The accused is then alleged to have left the deceased home and went out for entertainment.
Upon his return at around 5am the accused person found Machaba lying motionless and he then proceeded to Maun police station to report the matter. The deceased was then rushed to Letsholathebe II memorial hospital where she was certified dead, while Nyoni was subsequently arrested as the prime suspect of her murder.
