Companies that the victim was supposedly recruited by were never investigated
at the material time. According to the evidence, the companies search was also
only conducted on the 18 th of June 2020, following this case being filled against the
Respondent State. 89 It is also worth noting that Roseda Modise, the alleged
girlfriend of Mr. Kennedy Maurice Mativo, who too had been seen with the victim
was never questioned or requested for a statement during the material time of the
investigation. Her evidence too was only obtained on the 24 th of arch 2020. 90 The
Commission also does not take for granted that the Prosecutor General upon being
given the investigation file, indicated that there were some questions that
remained to be answered in the investigation. 91
160.
From these facts, it is clear tharthe Police did not conduct themselves
diligently in the investigations, leaving many plausible leads unpursued. This too
being on account of overreliance on other sources of evidence which were granted
more weight over others and perceived to be the conclusive truth.
161.
The Commission recalls the decision of the African Court on Human and
Peoples' Rights in Zongo, in which the Court ruled that:
The second area of laxihJ lies in the fact that the authorities concerned never sought
to explore other areas of investigation particularly those mentioned by the
Independent Commission of Enquiry in May 1999, such as the conflicts between
Norbert Zongo and the poachers and graziers in his ranch or the fact of his
poisoning shortly before his assassination. In that regard, the Respondent's
explanation that failure on the part of the authorities to explore other areas of
investigation due to the fact that the findings of the said Commission had excluded
the aforesaid avenues of investigation (supra, paragraph 149), is not convincing. 92
162.
The Commission is also of the opinion that the Police in the Respondent
State took a lax approach, choosing not to pursues the aforementioned areas of
investigation at the material time. These were / , }n€nt , ·.iij ~. iries which were
central, establishing core aspects of the case befo_,re the e on
t State. Such a
laxity came at the expense of the victim.
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90 Respondent State Submissions, Annex 18, Sworn Statement of Roseda Modis~,~4;:;Mal~ZO
91 Respondent State Submissions, Annex 28, Prosecutor General's Memo (2020) issued on the 4 th of April 2020
92 Para 153
89 R spondent State Submissions, Annex 25, Notice for Companies Search
39