Thamaga under siege

Sharon Mathala | Friday June 13, 2014 16:04

 

These child gangsters, some reported to be as young as nine-years-old, have forced residents into weekend nights curfew as they rampage through the village from dusk to dawn.

Violence, mass stabbings, beatings, theft, harassment, rape and murder are their modus operandi.

They terrorise residents in social ceremonies like parties, weddings and have reportedly even tried to disperse a funeral.

They storm these events and forcibly seize food, insult hosts, seize their phones before running to the next event.

Thamaga business people are crying for their losses especially those who trade at night because patrons’ are living in fear.

Mmegi has learnt that two of the gang members (names known to this publication) have been detained at the Moshupa boys prison for allegedly raping a cousin of a rival gang member.

The crew has also been linked to the recent threat to poison the village’s main water reservoir.

There have also been mass stabbing incidents reportedly linked to the gangs. Just recently three people were brutally stabbed at one of the local bars.

Another recent gang related incident was at a wedding at the home of one of the sub-chiefs in the village. The gang allegedly stormed the ceremony breaking into people’s vehicles, forcefully eating the food, beating guests and leaving the groom with serious head injuries.

Apparently the same gang then invaded a funeral service demanding food, insulting and assaulting everyone in their path.

With the rising population of about 20,000 residents, Thamaga has been battling this serious gang violence in the past few years. The situation reached crisis level in 2013 when there was a peak in cases of violence, theft, burglary and murder.

 

The Gangs

Mmegi investigations revealed that there are three main gangs. Merubise (Owls), Matsayakankane (those who grab by force), and Magakabe (crows). There are other small gangs, Bad Girls and Menang (mosquitoes).

Merubise is the biggest and most vicious gang based in Gasau ward. The gang is said to travel in groups of more than 40, causing havoc and leaving a trail of violence in the village.

Their ringleader is said to be a teacher based in Selebi-Phikwe, (name known to Mmegi). This alleged big shot gangster is said to travel between Phikwe and Thamaga every weekend. Residents believe that the evil profits from gang violence are financing his travels.

The list of names of other suspected ringleaders that the residents have handed to the police has been passed to Mmegi.

Another gang, Matsayakankane is said to be working in cohorts with Merubise, but are not based in Gasau. The group that used to be known as Matsetsenkane has since adopted a more practical name Matsayakankane, which literally means “those who grab by force”.

Magakabe is reported to be disappearing while most of Menang gangs members, which comprised of primary school pupils have since been inducted into the main Merubise gang.

Bad Girls is an all girl gang. Its members recently received corporal punishment on their bare-backs at the Kgotla and are said to have reformed.

 

Constituency League Connection

Further investigations have revealed that President Ian Khama’s constituency league initiative has provided the gangs with a cover to recruit and formalise their membership.

Terrified villagers who requested anonymity in fear of gangs’ violent backlash said the Merubise gang has a football team that participates in the constituency league. They exist under the guise of Maratabolo football team based in Gasau ward. There are widespread allegations that the team leaders are the ringleaders of the deadly Merubise gang. The playground of Maratabolo is the assembly point of the gang.

 

Police denial

Surprisingly the police are refusing to admit that the situation is out of hand. Acting Thamaga Police Commander, Assistant Superintendent Elias Magosi, was dilly-dallying when responding to Mmegi questions.

He said they have received isolated cases of stabbing and theft but refuse to admit that these are suspected cases of Thamaga gangs.

Despite mentioning the gang names he declined to shed light on whether or not they are currently investigating the alleged terror gangs.

Instead Magosi only admitted that there had been a number of reported cases alleged to be linked with the so-called gangs. “The Village is awash with rumors of the group of young men, we have such reports but we cannot confirm that the gangs are there, but we are looking for the culprits,” he said.

Magosi could not confirm or deny that the village is not safe because of these alleged thugs.

He said that: “I cannot say Thamaga is safe, at the same time I cannot say that members of the public should walk around the streets willy-nilly at night.”

Despite refusing to admit that there is a gang crisis in Thamaga, Magosi said that they have since engaged vigorous police raids around the village and have also deployed more manpower with the help of the village clusters.

 

Fighting the Gangs

The worsening situation in Thamaga has forced the village Kgosi Gobuamang Gobuamang to call village elders to come up with solutions on fighting the gang scourge. Last week, he met with Mephato to assist. On Wednesday he chaired a closed emergency meeting that included police, school headmasters and other village elders, with the main agenda being gangsterism in the village.

Speaking in an interview with Mmegi after the meeting the visibly worried Kgosi Gobuamang said the village elders have resolved to engage with the police to fight their children.

He said they have met with parents and there were differing views on how to handle the situation. “Some parents believed that corporal punishment without police involvement is the best solution while some wanted their suspected culprits to be tried by State law,” said Gobuamang.

Kgosi believes that corporal punishment is the best remedy. He explained that some of the gang members are very young that they need to be disciplined the traditional way and not sent to jail. Kgosi expressed displeasure at the way the police handled some of the cases related to the gang ‘terrorism’. He cited a situation where the police released the suspected gang members after members of the public arrested them during a scuffle at a wedding.

Gobuamang is however optimistic that they will make good strides in resolving the gang violence in his village.

“We have given the police a list of names of gang suspects that the police have agreed to investigate and summon the people on the list to the Kgotla to explain their suspected involvement in gang violence,” he said.

He also revealed that they have agreed with the police to summon the suspected Merubise ringleader from Phikwe to come to Thamaga Kgotla.

Kgosi said they have also resolved to call parents of all suspected gangsters to come and answer for their children.

Mmegi team also visited the Letlole Mosielele Secondary School that is located near the gang land of Gasau ward.

The headmaster Phemelo Sejabosigo said his school addressed the gang problem in 2013.

“A parents-teachers meeting was called in August 2013 to get guidance from parents on how we should tackle cases of students implicated in gangsterism,” said Sejabosigo.

He said the school has a disciplinary committee that includes guidance and counseling teachers who are first in providing assistance to students that are suspected of involvement in gangs.

Gang Victim

Setlhomonyana Koboyakgomo a resident in the village also related to the Mmegi crew his recent encounter with the gang, and how the gang almost killed his newly wed son last week.

He said that after his son’s wedding ceremony, when the family and friends were gathered around the fire, one of the boys from the gang had an altercation with the groom, which ultimately led to spilled blood and gunshots.

“Before we knew it a bunch of them had crowded the yard. Bottles were flying in the air with screams coming from every corner of the yard. In the process, they hit my son with a bottle on the head. I quickly grabbed my gun and shot in the air,” explained Koboyakgomo.

Koboyakgomo further said that they had called for help from the police who took a little over three hours to come to the scene. He said that by the time the police came they had detained two of the culprits.

“Because everything was happening so fast, at one point there were over 30 of them in my yard. They had a getaway car which was parked outside my compound, they came out of there like an angry mob,” he said.

Koboyakgomo also shared his displeasure with the way the police are handling the situation because the culprits that nearly killed his son on his wedding day have since been released from custody.

 

Mother of a dead gangster

“My son was a feared gangster,” Nametsegang Ramasu (64) narrates the story of her murdered son like she is retelling a script of a violent drama. Her son was called Boifang, which coincidentally means ‘be fearful’, turned out to be a feared gangster and member of Merubise. In July 2013 at the age of 21 he was murdered in a bloody gang battle. His death adversely affected her family.

“Re ne ra utlwa botlhoko thata (we were seriously hurt),” said Ramasu. She never got to hear the police messengers as she fainted before they could deliver the sad news of her son’s passing. Ramasu said her husband was traumatised after identifying Boifang’s body at the mortuary. The husband never recovered from the trauma. He succumbed to the shock and died just a month following the burial of Boifang.

The grief stricken Ramasu said the shock was caused by the ghastly way Boifang lost his life. His neck was severed and butchered as if he was being executed.

“The killer stabbed Boifang so gruesomely that my husband never recovered from the horrific sight,” she said.

Ramasu recalls how fiery Boifang used to terrorise the village. He was feared in the village and an active gang member. The old woman said it was a case of good boy gone bad. “Boifang o godile e le ngwana yo o maitseo, bothata bo tsile a bala Form Three (he was a well behaved child, until he was doing Form Three),” she said.

After Form Three at Letlole Mosielele he went to study at Moshupa Senior. Ramasu said; “Boifang o ne a betsa (he was a bully)”. The grieving mother described how her son later joined the village gangs and became a delinquent on lawless drinking sprees. Even on the morning of his death Boifang’s mother was not really bothered when she did not find him in his bed. “Nna kene ke itse gore o toga a tla (I thought he would soon arrive),” said Ramasu.

Boifang’s elder siblings tried to counsel their brother but failed as he continued his delinquency. Ramasu has advised other parents to desist from hiding their children’s nasty habits.

Meanwhile, Ramasu has told Mmegi that their son’s murder case has not yet been resolved. Almost a year since the incident they are still waiting for justice to take its course.

 

Meeting the gangster

Mmegi went to Gasau ward in Thamaga that has been identified as the main assembly area of the Merubise gang. Our source, who requested anonymity to avoid gang vengeance, drove with Mmegi to identify well-known gang members.

We meet two boys who are said to be part of the gang walking briskly towards the empty soccer pitch. We stop and start a conversation.

One boy, dark-skinned is wearing a worn out yellow Dickies hat, white Converse T-shirt, khaki pants and Adidas sneakers.

There are gold earrings in both his ears. He is chewing a toothpick. His mate, light skinned, short, is in a blue sweater and brown pants and All-Start sneakers.

 We get out of the car and attempt ‘guy-talk’ with the boys. They look at us suspiciously. We decide to give them the benefit of the doubt by explaining our mission in the village.

Mmegi: “Ke chekile majita. Gatwe gents tsa ha di a shapa, so ke batla go di bona (I am checking on the gents. I hear gents here beat up people, so I want to see them).”

They exchange surprised looks and say nothing.

He reverts back to small talk, about how is the ‘hood’ how are they surviving as he tries to bring down their guard. They respond well to his questions until he informs them that he is from a newspaper and working on a gang story. Silence again and this time they appear like they do not want to speak anymore.

“So lea ba xava Merubise? (do you know Merubise?)” Charles probes.  With straight faces they shake heir heads; “Ah, no bra yaka. (No my brother).”

They say they do not know anything about Merubise, Magakabe, Matsayakankane or any gang in Thamaga.

It feels like they are following a code, a kind of Italian ‘ormeta’ (silence). They do not know or have heard anything about gangs. Nothing. Not even a rumour.

They lie about the location of their homes saying they do not live in Gasau ward. At the end of the conversation they have a small request, “Zama P5 da bra-yaka. (Give us five pula)” We respond; “Ah blind, gents akere le gana go bua. (I have nothing, isn’t you guys are refusing to talk).” They laugh and walk away.