Confessions of a DIS �hit man�
Pauline Dikuelo | Friday January 8, 2016 18:00
Richard Kgotlhang believes he is a dead man walking and a spent bullet only waiting to be discarded in a heartless and brutal manner by those in control of the spy world.
“I am finished. I am just waiting for them to kill me,” he says in state of hopelessness, but with no tinge of regret.
But before he meets his maker, the 33-year-old Kgotlhang has a story to tell. He wants everyone to know why he feels he would soon be eliminated and that is why one day in November he walked into the Mmegi newsroom with intention to tell it all.
His story has all the hallmarks of a blockbuster Mafia film script. He makes damning allegations about the Botswana intelligence community of which he claims he was part of. Kgotlhang’s story is hard to believe, but he insists that the country should pause and hear his story.
“Everybody thinks that I am mad,” he confesses about the skepticism from his listeners. And then he continues, “I am a former DIS hitman and I want to speak out before they finish me off,” he says as he introduces himself.
But his physical appearance is in stark contrast to his profession. Unlike the Hollywood hitmen and assassins in dark suits, dark sunglasses and polished black leather shoes and are clean-shaven and well built, Kgotlhang is none of that. During one of the interviews with Mmegi, he is in blue jeans, orange and maroon stripped golf shirt with a white T-shirt underneath, and red and white Nike sneakers.
He does not look like a killer but before long, this multi-coloured dressed man confesses to some of the most harrowing murders and crimes, all in the name of the state. He even makes a shocking allegation of his failed plot to assassinate Gabane/Mmankgodi legislator, Pius Mokgware.
DIS recruitment
Perhaps the million-pula question is how did a countryside boy from Sesung in the belly of the Kgalagadi desert end up being the contract killer for the spy agency, as he alleges.
Kgotlhang has always been a bad boy. In fact by his own admission, he was at one point a career criminal. He relishes in his narration of how he was an unruly student at Matsha College.
Without any remorse or regret he admits his involvement in the tragic methanol poisoning incident at Matsha in 2003 that killed nine students and left many blind after over 70 students drunk the chemical.
His notoriety began at school and continued many years later, but was never arrested by the police. He never finished his secondary school as he went deeper into the criminal world.
The bad reputation earned him accolades in the criminal circles and was ‘recruited’ into the DIS, he alleges.
Kgotlhang says sometimes in the early 2015 when in Letlhakeng, he received a call from a person requesting a meeting with him. The meeting he says was arranged in Letlhakeng few days later.
At a meeting at one of the drinking spots in Letlhakeng, Kgotlhang says he met two men previously unknown to him and they introduced themselves as Gabriel and Eddie - agents from Directorate of Intelligence Services (DIS).
They only asked him about some of the known criminals in Letlhakeng and later left after he volunteered some of the information he had. He said that as a career criminal he knew most criminals in Letlhakeng, Mogoditshane and Gaborone.
Months later, Kgotlhang met the two spooks again in Mogoditshane.
“I told them that one of the Letlhakeng criminals that they enquired about during our first meeting died in a car accident and they just laughed,” he says.
“They then offered me to work with them but said they needed to earn my trust first,” says Kgotlhang. His ‘job interview’ had only one crucial question and it came from his soon-to-be handler, Gabriel (full names withheld) questioning, “Have you ever killed a person?”
He says his response was that he has never killed a person, but for cash he would not hesitate to kill a human being.
“Those guys knew a lot about me. They started asking how I killed the Matsha students and other petty crimes I did,” Kgotlhang recalls.
He claims he remembers the day he met the man they call ‘DG’, DIS Director General Isaac Kgosi. He also met other senior government security officers including one ‘Mr James’ (full names withheld because he was not available for comment).
“DG told one female officer to give me a manual to read and sign but I was never given a chance to read it. They just made me sign and I don’t know what was contained in it. I just signed,” he says.
After meeting the top guys in the intelligence community, Kgotlhang says he now considered himself part of them. He claims his handlers offered him ‘training’.
He says he was taught, “to kill, how to approach suspects, how to handle guns, how to be a spy and to question everything”.
He was told that his job is top secret. No one, including his family, must ever know of his involvement with the DIS. For a career criminal, Kgotlhang says he had a dream job.
Alleged gruesome killings
Kgotlhang narrates how he killed two men (suspected to be foreigners) who were hanged upside down inside a sack and locked in a house somewhere in Gaborone Central.
“Gabriel said he was training me so he asked me whether I have ever killed a person.”
So as part of the ‘training’ he was given a gun and asked to execute a man in sack. “Ke babotse two-times” (I shot him twice), he says, almost proud of himself.
“After the shooting Gabriel asked me whether I wasn’t shaken by what I have just done. I told him I wasn’t. I was ready to kill for money.”
He says another night, they, Gabriel and him, returned to the ‘slaughter house’ for his second execution. He says he is haunted by screams of the two men few seconds before he pulled the trigger.
Kgotlhang says the killing jolted his mind a bit but he was promised professional psychological support. It was an empty promise.
Mmegi couldn’t independently verify whether the two suspected foreigners were indeed executed as alleged by Kgotlhang, but he maintains that he indeed executed the foreigners in the presence of DIS agents.
Mmegi team drove with Kgotlhang to identify the ‘slaughter house’ where he claims to have killed the two foreigners but could not find it. He said the agents always sped around Gaborone at night and took confusing turns when they went to the house, which he said it is a brown-bricked flat.
DIS jobs
Kgotlhang’s says his first assignment was to nab DIS impersonators. He was swift in this particular assignment and helped the DIS to arrest few impersonators.
Second job was to go and investigate a gun-totting ZCC member who was trading in smuggled guns at Letlhakeng. Kgotlhang impressed his bosses when he suggested that another agent named Eddie (full names withheld) be taken off his missions because his looks were too suspicious. “Eddie looked more like a cop, but Gabriel was like a real criminal and camouflaged easily in the dangerous missions. So Eddie was taken off our missions,” he claims.
But there was a problem. Kgotlhang says despite performing to his best, he was not getting paid at his ‘dream’ job. He says every time he asked about payment he would be referred to various people but never got anything.
Mokgware’s foiled assassination
His biggest mission was to kill Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) Member of Parliament for Gabane/Mmankgodi, Pius Mokgware - an ex-army general. He recalls getting the order from Gabriel at a meeting next to the fountain in front of Parliament buildings.
It was going to be his make it-or-break mission. He was shocked by the assignment, but the bounty at P650,000 was tempting.
According to Kgotlhang, because Mokgware is a high profile figure, he was not going to be eliminated through the barrel of the gun. Kgotlhang says he was given something like a ‘tiny wire’ that he was told to burn, undetected, inside Mokgware’s office.
Orders were for him to ‘chew a gum’ while the wire was quickly burning. The chemical from the wire was going to weaken Mokgware and eventually kill him shortly afterwards.
Kgotlhang would then get injection to reduce the chemical effect on his body and he would receive his bounty and walk away.
Inside Mokgware’s office, armed with a ‘tiny wire’ that would begin killing process, MP Mokgware shocked Kgotlhang when he told him to his face, “You’re still young, young-man. Go back to those who sent you to kill me. Why are you letting yourself to be used to do evil acts?” Kgotlhang says Mokgware called his lawyer, Dick Bayford and two other men to tell them about the assassination attempt.
This week, Bayford confirmed meeting Kgotlhang with Mokgware. He told Mmegi that Kgotlhang’s story is consistent with what he told them.
Mokgware also called the Minister of Defence and Security Shaw Khathi and Minister of Presidential Affairs Eric Molale to inform them about this would-be assassin.
Mokgware confirmed his interactions with Kgotlhang and was relieved to find out he is still alive. “I met that young man and he told me he was assigned to kill me. It did not come as a shock as he was the third one to come to me in the same manner. I simply sent him back to his masters and told him to tell them to pay him and come face me themselves instead of sending young people to me,” he said.
Kgathi on the other hand, denies knowing Kgotlhang and ever speaking to Mokgware about him. Strangely, the minister was quick to ask for Kgotlhang’s number from Mmegi reporters.
Deadman walking
Mokgware’s foiled assassination blew Kgotlhang’s cover and the DIS immediately dumped him. After the opposition politicians and lawyers met and heard about his dirty missions, he was finished.
No more fast cars and late night wake-up calls for midnight assignments. The hunter turned the hunted.
The now homeless Kgotlhang says that his rented home is also locked as he has been failing to pay since he joined the DIS. He could not locate his laptop; hard drive and some of the documents he was looking for at his rented house, which he suspected Gabriel took as he had keys to the house.
“I have deserted the house in October (2015) as I have been failing to pay rent because these guys took all my time but are yet to pay me. I know how they operate and they are going to kill me. Very soon,” Kgotlhang says resignedly.
“They tried to run me down with a car, which I managed to escape. On another day, they took all my cellphones and when I tried to go and get them at the headquarters, I was told that I am not allowed to enter the [DIS] premises. They follow me everywhere I go even in church threatening to kill me.” Kgotlhang believes he has been poisoned after his initial meeting with Mmegi in November 2015. He alleges his handlers tried to coerce him to change his story and tell Mmegi that he was high on dagga when he made the allegations.
What’s in it for Kgotlhang?
After his alleged involvement with DIS, why is Kgotlhang rushing to the media with the story, based on allegations? He told Mmegi in one of the interviews in 2015 and 2016 that his life was in danger and wanted to hide from his hunters in public.
He said he wanted the world to know the truth about the DIS activities, some of which have been barbaric. He said that he did want to die in vain. “…When I die I want the world to know why I died. And more importantly, I want my four little children to know what led to their father’s death,” he said.
Part of the reasons for coming out, Kgotlhang said, was to ease his depression. He said the atrocities he committed still haunted him to this day. He also said that he wanted to be paid what he was owed by the government through DIS and wanted to meet Kgathi and Kgosi with his men.
What took you guys so long? - Isaac Kgosi
Contacted for comment on Kgotlhang’s allegations, the chief spy, Isaac Kgosi would not engage on the matter, suffice to say: “I have long waited for you to publish the story last year [2015]. If you want to ask anything, ask him”.
Is Kgotlhang’s story believable? You decide
Claims by alleged Directorate on Intelligence and Security (DIS) hitman and self-proclaimed career criminal Richard Kgotlhang are very serious and raise questions about the activities of the spy agency.
Central to his story is that the DIS used him to commit heinous acts, which includes amongst other, murder. For knowing too much, he alleges that the DIS is now after him. The question is, with the absence of material evidence, is Kgotlhang telling the truth?
In the last two months Kgotlhang has met on different dates with Mmegi reporters to narrate his story. In addition to that he has met several other persons close to Mmegi, including the newspaper lawyer on separate dates. The visibly shaken Kgotlhang agreed to speak on camera and has since narrated his story without any contradictions.
In the last few weeks Mmegi has spoken to several individuals familiar with Kgotlhang, including his friends and family members about his state of mind. Most of those interviewed attested to the fact that Kgotlhang has a checkered criminal past, with no past mental problems.
Kgotlhang has no material evidence to support his ‘hitman story’, but despite this, his attention to detail, precision and consistency in narrating his story was enough assurance for us to publish the story. We are, however, leaving the question of his believability to the readers to decide.