SOUTH African Marietta Bosch’s last chance of escaping the hangman for the murder of her best friend is an appeal for clemency to Botswana President Festus Mogae.
Bosch, 50, is back on Death Row in Botswana’s Gaborone Central Prison after the Botswana Court of Appeal upheld her conviction and death sentence for killing Maria Wolmarans. Wolmarans was the wife of Tienie Wolmarans, who Bosch married while on bail after being arrested in connection with Maria Wolmarans? murder.
The Appeal Court found Bosch was “a wicked and despicable woman” who had carefully planned to kill Maria Wolmarans so she could marry Tienie Wolmarans.
She had also planned to implicate Hennie Coetzee, general manager of the company for which Tienie Wolmarans worked, in the killing, so that he would hang for the crime instead of her.
“There is a massive body of evidence to show that Bosch committed the crime,” Acting Judge President Timothy Aguda said.
He said it was absolutely clear Bosch had told “a large number of lies beyond the capacity of the average man”.
Bosch was represented by British Queen’s Counsel Desmond de Silva, who argued that trial judge Isaac Aboagye had misdirected himself and that the defence had been hampered by technicalities.
Aguda said Bosch had planned the murder over a period of time. The planning included travelling all the way to another country to collect the murder weapon, telling lies to the person with whom it had been kept in South Africa and transporting the gun across two borders illegally despite pleas from friends and members of the family not to do so.
Her husband and members of her family were in the court, but were not allowed contact with Bosch.
De Silva and attorney Fashole Luke II are now conferring as to whether they will seek clemency.
When this was suggested to Tienie Wolmarans as the court was clearing, he shrugged and, holding back tears, said; “That would be worthless.” He refused to comment further.
There have been 33 hangings in Botswana since independence in 1966. The most recent was on January 24 1998.