Suspected magistrate killer in court

By Libuseng Nyaka

QWAQWA – Lehlohonolo Maketoane (42), who is charged with murdering his wife Mamello Thamae – a Free State Magistrate and Acting Judge – is expected to appear before Heilbron magistrate on 11 September, 2024.

This follows his extradition from Lesotho on August 26, 2024.
According to Free State and Northern Cape National Prosecution Authority (NPA) spokesperson, Mojalefa Senokane, Maketoane is expected to be in court for legal representation.
According to media reports, Maketoane was extradited to South Africa under heavy escort by the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) on August 26 and handed over to South Africa Police over Maseru bridge.
His extraction was in terms of extradition treaty the South Africa and Lesotho have signed.

Extradition is deemed a sovereign act. It is a process, initiated by an adequately founded, formal request from one sovereign State to another, based on treaty, reciprocity or comity, by means of which one or more person/s accused or convicted of the commission of a serious crime within the jurisdiction of the requesting State, is surrendered to competent courts in the territory of that State for trial or sentence.

Murdered Free State Magistrate and Acting Judge Mamello Thamae.

An extradition agreement regulates and governs extradition from the Republic of South Africa. Extradition proceedings are sui generis. The purpose of such proceedings is not to determine the person’s guilt or innocence but rather to ascertain whether the person is liable to be surrendered to the foreign State concerned for the imposition or enforcement of a sentence or because, like in this case, the person is accused of committing a serious offence in the foreign State.
Maketoane is suspected of murdering his magistrate wife Mamello Thamae (40) and stuffing her body in the boot of their car, and was arrested in Mokhotlong in September 2023.

His arrest was made possible by both South Africa Police Service and their Lesotho counterparts .
According to the head of Mokhotlong detectives, Detective Inspector Limpho Pitso, the South African Police Service (Saps) alerted the LMPS of the missing couple.
A vehicle tracker showed they had skipped the border via the Ficksburg border post.
Local police traced the car to a guesthouse in Mokhotlong, a 230km drive from Ficksburg.
They found the couple’s vehicle, a Kia Sportage, at the lodge and located Maketoane after the pair were reported missing from their home in Heilbron, Free State.
“A search was undertaken, and two bags containing men’s and women’s clothes were found. A woman was found wearing pyjamas and tied up in the boot. A piece of cloth was stuffed into her mouth, with a rope tied around her head and fastened on the mouth,” Pitso was quoted as saying.

Fugitive Lehlohonolo Maketoane.

Maketoane made his first court appearance in Mokhotlong magistrate court on Tuesday September 26, 2023 where he was remanded in custody.
According to a statement from the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) Maketoane confessed to killing his wife after she had filed for divorce.
During his first appearance (according to reports by Citizen), Pitso told the court that upon questioning, Maketoane confessed to killing Thamae, blaming his actions on their broken-down marriage.
Pitso said the accused said Thamae had filed for divorce after their marriage hit rock bottom.

Maketoane is accused of brutally beating his wife to death on September 21 at their Heilbron home. After the murder, he allegedly placed her body in the trunk of his car and drove to Mokhotlong, Lesotho, intending to dispose of her remains. It is believed that Maketoane suspected his wife of infidelity and that her alleged lover may have influenced her decision to file for divorce.

Pitso told the court that upon questioning, Makotoane confessed to killing Thamae, blaming his actions on their broken-down marriage.
Pitso said the 42-year-old murder-accused said Thamae had filed for divorce after their marriage hit rock bottom.