How traditional healers sold out a ‘killer’
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday June 26, 2023 06:00
Tsametse allegedly killed Ofentse in order to claim P50,000 from the Botswana Life where he had insured his little cousin. The then 16-year-old Ofentse's lifeless body was found in the vicinity of Mogoditshane Senior Secondary School in March 2018 after disappearing with no trace. Tsametse would be arrested, questioned, let go, and arrested again seven days later, thanks to two Mogoditshane-based traditional healers. The first seer to take the stand was Kamogelo Keitholetse, widely known as Rabeisane following his much publicised participation in the hunt for little Tlotlo Karema in Lobatse last year. Even though there were inconsistencies in their statements, Keitholetse’s colleague Lemogang Rukuyo also reiterated Keitholetse’s statement that Tsametse had told them he had killed someone. After the first few witnesses took the stand, it was time for Keitholetse.
He told the court of how Tsametse came to his house all distraught and unsettled seeking for his help. “Tsametse came to me and told me he needed my help. He kept on saying eish!, eish! a lot of times and I told him he could talk to me since I was also a man. We moved close to a car where he told me he had killed a person. I asked him if he had reported to the police but he said no. I asked him how I could help while he never reported and he said he wanted to kill the case because the police are looking for him,” he said. Keitholetse said he offered to assist with what he wanted for P1,500. He said Tsametse then had P1,000 and left saying he was going to look for P500 only for him to return after four days. Keitholetse told court that Rukuyo joined him while they were standing by the car with the suspect and was told about the assistance Tsametse needed.
He said he would then state that he doubted Tsametse would come back as he looked really scared. Upon his return on March 20, Keitholetse said Tsametse called him aside while he was still attending to his clients. “He told me he was back to deal with the same issue we spoke about earlier and also that he wanted his car to be protected. I then called Rukuyo and we went with him into the office. While in there, I spoke to Rukuyo in Sekgalagadi to tell my elder brother Paul Keitholetse to go and call police officers. While Paul went to get the officers, I delayed the accused by preparing a bath for him and he was then arrested and the police took his Honda Fit vehicle along,” he said. Upon cross-examination by Tsametse’s attorney Nkosana Ngwenya, loopholes were opened on Keitholetse s evidence which the lawyer said contradicted what was contained in his statement. He first questioned was on how the statement was taken from Keitholetse. The traditional healer, who says he cannot read or write, said he narrated to the police what happened and they wrote it down and he then just signed without it being read to him. Ngwenya put it to Keitholetse that his evidence was contradictory as what he said in court differed with what is contained in his statement. For instance, he said Keitholetse had written that he called Rukuyo to hear out Tsametse before he left the first time while in court he said he called Rukuyo to tell him after Tsametse left.
He also pointed out that in his statement, Keitholetse stated that he asked Tsametse who he killed, why he killed and how he did it, something he told court he did not do. Meanwhile, Rukuyo told court that Keitholetse called him to join them while they stood by the car with Tsametse where he told them he killed a person at Nkoyaphiri using an Okapi knife. “We kept on asking him some questions and we told him we would help for P1,600. He said he had only P1000 and we told him it was too little for the kind of help he requested and he left to say he was going to look for the remaining P600 only for him to return after a week. He met Keitholetse who then called me and while we assisted him, we asked Paul Keitholetse to go and report to the police and he came back with the Police who took him,” he said. It would seem like the same day Tsametse was arrested on March 20, 2018, he would then take the police to where he had hidden the shoes he wore on the day of the murder. According to another witness, Keemenao Sekgele who operates a car wash in Nkoyaphiri, Mogoditshane, and the accused person showed the police where he hid the shoes.
“The police came with him to me and told me that they had a suspect who said he had hid his shoes by my car wash. I went with them to the nearby bush where he took out the shoes and the police left with him and the shoes,” he said. Another witness, a police officer in Detective Constable Boikanyo Tlhojane told the court that he was called to attend the crime scene immediately after it was reported in the wee hours of March 3, 2018. According to Tlhojane, they found Ofentse’s body looking upwards soaked in blood. He said Arnold had a cut going from one side of his neck through to the other. Trial continues before Justice Modiri Letsididi of the Lobatse High Court.