Confessions of Phase 2’s surviving heist suspect
Sharon Mathala | Wednesday December 21, 2022 09:25
Tsaone Reboeleng met Thato Gaopatwe in South Africa at a club where they exchanged contacts and therein their friendship began.
Unbeknownst to her, life would dramatically change forever. She had acquainted herself with one of the masterminds behind the repeated armed robberies that had been haunting the country.
Gaopatwe, also called ‘the Bomber’ for his ‘expertise’ in the bombing of cash-in-transit (CIT) cars and ATMs, is alleged to be the mastermind behind a syndicate of armed robbers between Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, now operating from a South African prison.
He was allegedly one of a five-man gang that robbed a G4S CIT car of R200 million in broad daylight in Boksburg, South Africa back in 2018.
The five are currently serving jail time for attempted murder, malicious damage to property, possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives, and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
According to South African media reports, Gaopatwe is also connected to a certain heist kingpin who is alleged to have been involved in 23 robberies.
“One day when I visited him (Gaopatwe) in South Africa I asked him what he was doing for a living and he just answered ‘why am I asking’ him because I know. We just passed a joke about it and ignored it,” Reboeleng states.
The two friends would go on lavish dates buying whatever they wanted. According to Reboeleng, sometime around 2018, she came across a post on social media about a robbery incident in South Africa and her friend was amongst the culprits.
“Since then our communication became poor since he was arrested. After three to four months, I received an Instagram message from him asking how I am doing. Communication became active then. He called me through video calls and by then he was in prison. He then asked for my WhatsApp number and we started to chat through WhatsApp,” the Phase 2 survivor further states.
Her friendship with the ‘Bomber’ blossomed. They were in instant communication with each other and got to know one another deeply.
“Beginning of 2019 he asked about my living and what I am up to. I told him I am not working and he then promised to offer me a job, which I will benefit from. I asked him what kind of job and he then told me that I will be accompanying his boys wherever they go,” Reboeleng shares.
According to the only survivor in the shoot-out, her initial trips were to Maun, Letlhakane, and back to Gaborone. She says she was never told what the trips were about but she noticed that ‘the boys’ were transporting weed.
For every trip, she says, she would be paid P7,000. The trips, however, would be stopped in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when there were restrictions on movement.
During this time, instead of travelling with the boys, she instead gave them her car to use. Later on in the year, she says her kingpin friend told her that he was planning something big and that if he succeeds he would buy her a lavish car.
“I asked him what’s the plan, he then told me that they are planning to rob G4S cars of cash-in-transit. I then relaxed and stopped asking more questions. In April 2021, I saw on Facebook that a G4S car has been robbed, I then did a screenshot of that post and I sent it to him and he said ‘yes we won’, he then asked me to delete our conversation,” Reboeleng states.
According to Reboeleng, her friend, using the cash heist money took her to a lavish all paid expenses holiday in Zanzibar to “relax”.
When she returned, she found a new Audi car waiting for her.
“I knew all the money heists were planned by him and since we were friends, he told me everything. Every time they won he would tell me. He told me about the Middle Star incident and the Mogoditshane one,” she says.
However, things turned bad, when law enforcement started arresting the kingpin’s boys. “Things became bad as money was not coming in properly and we would sometimes argue.”
The Bank of Baroda robbery and Phase 2 shooting
Turning to how the robbery plan was hatched, Reboeleng says sometime in January this year, her friend the Bomber asked her to look for a house in Phase 2. She says they rented a vehicle that was to be used for ‘“something at the Main Mall”.
“He sent me a video of a Security Systems vehicle and he ordered me to go to the Main Mall by Bank of Baroda to check if the car is parked in the same way as in that video he sent me, also to check if it had an escort. I did and I sent him back the information he wanted,” she further states in the initial police statement.
According to Reboeleng, she repeated the same for a week and each day she reported back to her friend in prison about the situation outside the bank.
“I still continued checking the parking of the car (Security Systems) but then things changed during the week. Escort became tight as the car was now escorted by the police, Botswana Defence Force, and Special Support Group. I then sent that information to Thato, he then became suspicious that the person who gave him the job may be changing his mind,” she states.
Reboeleng was instructed to continue with her daily check-ups. The only survivor further says that sometime on February 20 plans were in motion to rob Bank of Baroda. She prepared food for the men and went about her daily chores.
The next day, February 21 at around 8:30am five of the men she was staying with left for the Main Mall to rob the Security Systems vehicle. They failed and returned home. According to her recollection, her friend from the South African prison then instructed her to go and survey the situation at the Main Mall to find out what could have gone wrong.
On February 22 at around 8:30am, the same team left again on a tough mission for the second time. The team would not give up, she says. They tried again the next day and this time they succeeded, she adds. Whilst going about her morning, the only survivor says she received a screenshot from one of the boys’ girlfriends saying: “Ba a tsere basimane madi ko Main Mall” loosely translated, “Our boys have managed”.
Reboeleng says when she arrived at their home in Phase 2, she found a lot of money on top of the table and indeed the boys had managed.
Their victory was, however, short-lived as soon thereafter, the police raided their house. According to her, the boys asked her to go outside and check out who was knocking at the gate because, “I am a lady, nothing will be suspected. I refused. Now, everything happened so fast as we now heard the helicopter above our house. And a loudspeaker saying ‘open the gate.’”
According to Reboeleng, inside the house, there was panic and debate as to whether they should shoot at the police. When she heard gunshots, she says she went and hid inside the wardrobe and another followed her.
“We could hear gunshots and our guys were screaming. Whilst inside the wardrobe, Phenyo screamed due to tear gas, which was thrown inside the room. A voice shouted at us to come out and we then came out. I could see that I was bleeding from my waist. I don’t know what happened as thereafter I realised I was outside the house,” she recalls.
She says all she recalls was that she was then taken to the clinic. Later she was referred to Princess Marina Referal Hospital where she was admitted for three days and then detained at Central Police Station, Gaborone. Reboeleng is now facing the wrath of the law on charges of armed robbery.