Taxi driver accused of shooting Tshepo Rakoma in parking lot remains behind bars

Pretoria – Murder accused, Polokwane taxi driver Kibi Josias Lebogo, 34, will remain behind bars while his bail application is pending after police asked the court for more time to investigate.

He appeared in the Polokwane Magistrate’s Court yesterday on a charge of murder and another of unlawfully possession of a firearm.

He is accused of fatally shooting 32-year-old bank consultant Tshepo Rakoma, who was his partner of eight years. She was also the mother of his three children.

Lebogo was arrested early this month after he allegedly sprayed Rakoma’s car, where she was sitting having lunch, with bullets, killing her instantly in a parking lot of a shopping centre in the Polokwane CBD.

He later climbed on top of a building threatening to commit suicide, but police negotiators convinced him otherwise and arrested him.

Rakoma was laid to rest at an emotionally charged service at her home in Seshego near Polokwane on Saturday.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Mashudu Malabi-Nzhangi could not divulge if the State was going to oppose bail.

She said: “Lebogo’s matter was postponed to May 26 for further police investigation.”

The incident has since sparked public outcry and brought back into the spotlight the countrywide battle against gender-based violence.

Limpopo has had a rise in incidents of gender-based-violence, recording more than 700 cases since March last year to date.

Last year 28-year-old Ntwanano Shisana was allegedly shot and killed by her 27-year old boyfriend who later turned the gun on himself at Ka-Bhungeni village near Giyani.

In a similar incident – also last year – 45-year-old Terresinah Patsy was hacked to death with a sharp object by her 42-year-old partner, Anthony Madzivi, who later committed suicide by hanging at his home in Makhuvha village in Giyani.

Last week the Pretoria News reported that Sipho Eric Tsoi, 22, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Leboakgomo Regional Court for raping his 62-year-old aunt at his house in Zebediela.

Pretoria News