‘How my inmate boyfriend almost got me arrested’

Sharon Mathala | Tuesday July 30, 2024 09:45

Her story is similar to that of the confession of the Phase 2 robbery shoot-out survivor, Tsaone Reboeleng. The pair fell into a love relationship with a cash-in-transit mastermind, unknowingly.

Gaopatwe, also called, ‘the Bomber’ known 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.

This week, the detail of robbery trial, which led to the death of three robbers and two bystanders, played out at the Village Magistrate’s Court before Senior Magistrate, Tshepo Thedi, as State witnesses took the stand to recount the horrific day.

Of particular interest was a beauty, one Karabo Mangole, who told the court that she dated a man by the name Thato Gaopatwe. They met on Instagram in 2021. According to her, at the time she knew that her new boyfriend lived in Sandton, South Africa. Unbeknown to her, her new lover was a prison inmate.

She would later find out that he was in prison and confronted him. She further told the court that she then questioned him and he told her that he was in prison for a drug trafficking offence.

Their love affair continued, she said. Somewhere around November 24, 2022, he called her to borrow a car. She further testified that she lent her kingpin boyfriend a car that belonged to her friend, a certain Gorata. According to her, Gaopatwe had borrowed the car because he needed to run a few errands around Gaborone and later “pick up something in Ramotswa.”

Mangole further said that she drove to Sefalana, Block 3 where she met her friend and the person they were to give the car to. According to her, she did not observe the person who was sent by her boyfriend. She said her friend gave him her car, a gold Toyota Run X vehicle and the two friends continued their shopping spree as it was Black Friday specials.

Asked when and how they broke up, she told the court she broke up with her kingpin boyfriend as soon as she found out that he had gotten her into trouble. The same car she had lent him, was used in a cash-in-transit robbery incident that led to a shoot-out between the robbers and the police, killing three people.

She further told the court that when further confronting her boyfriend about the matter, he confessed that the car was used in the heist and that she should lie to the police. She said he instructed her to tell the police that they lent the car to someone they knew because if they told the police that it was him, they would be in trouble.

She further said they did exactly as instructed and lied to the police. She said after long hours of interrogation, she eventually told the truth.

Back in 2022, following a shootout that played out in public during the busy Black Friday shopping spree, three robbers were fatally shot in an exchange of gunfire with the police leading to the deaths of two bystanders caught in the crossfire after a G4S cash-in-transit (CIT) vehicle heist. The incident led to the death of a CEDA employee.