Mahao witness crumbles in court

MASERU – THE first eyewitness in the Lieutenant General Maaparankoe Mahao murder trial yesterday crumbled under cross examination in court.

A road construction worker, Thabiso Letuka, had said in his evidence-in-chief that he saw the murderers drag Mahao’s body from his truck to another vehicle.

He also had said he heard two gun shots when Mahao was killed.

However, when he was cross-examined by the defence, Letuka conceded that he was quite far from the scene and did not have a clear view of what really happened.

Letuka told the court on Tuesday that he was a road construction site when Mahao was killed.

He said as he was still surveying the road, he saw a truck passing where he had parked his car and immediately he noticed three speeding white double-cab vehicles following the truck.

He said he was about 300 metres away when the three vehicles blocked the truck on the road in Mokema.

“The first twin-cab stopped in front of the truck, the other one on the right hand side of truck where the driver sits, and the last one stopped at the back of the truck,” he said.

He said he saw men coming out of the vehicles and immediately he heard a gunshot.

“I then saw two men disembarking from the truck from the passenger’s seat entering the bush,” he said.

Letuka said there were three people in the mini-truck.

He said after a few seconds, he heard the second gun shot and by that time the two men were returning back to the truck.

“They were raising their hands.”

He said after some time he noticed that there was a quarrel and later a man dressed in black pulled out someone from the truck and dragged him to the vehicle which was in front of the truck and the vehicle left.

Letuka said after they had left, the vehicle which was on the truck’s side also left, leaving the truck with the vehicle which was at the back of the truck.

He added that when he approached the scene, he realised that there were two men standing next to the vehicle dressed in black security clothes and they were putting on bulletproof vests.

But under the cross-examination Letuka said he was not aware of what was happening because he thought it was a Chinese car which was being attacked.

He also said he did not see what was going on but rather saw from a distance that something was happening.

“I only saw the characters but could not see what was going on,” he said.

He also admitted that he never said Mahao was dragged or pulled to the car in front of the truck but all he saw was when someone was being taken out of the truck to the car in front.

He was however told that whatever he said before court contradicted with what he had said in the statement he made to the police.

He said all he said in court was true as compared to what he said in the statement he wrote to police.

’Malimpho Majoro