Block 3 arson suspects give contradicting statements
Sharon Mathala | Thursday August 25, 2016 15:19
In statements seen by Mmegi, the two murder accused, Caroline Gwamolamba (38) and Bakang Godisang (26) gave their side of the story on the incident that rocked the country.
In separate statements, the two say that in December they followed Gwamolamba’s soldier ex-boyfriend. The man had dumped Gwamolamba and had moved on with the now deceased Tuelo Mokgalo. The two women say they followed his trail for the whole of that day until he finally retired back to his now girlfriend’s home in Block 3.
The two say they then approached one of the women in the multi residential plot and quizzed her about the two’s relationship.
They say that they then left to run other errands before turning back to the yard, but this time they just parked outside the yard observing movements.
Witnesses said the two were then spotted at a nearby filling station filling up a container with petrol. Gwamolamba and Godisang allegedly confessed to police that they later returned to Mokgalo’s house around 10 pm that night.
But their statements differ after this. In her statement Gwamolamba says, “We proceeded to Block 3 and parked somewhere near to the plot. We walked to the plot and made some observations and realised that they were fast asleep, but the fence was high. We decided to look for a boy we could give P200 and so we went to Zoom night club.”
Gwamolamba says they wanted to hire someone else for the job. She says at Zoom nightclub they approached two young men who refused to help them. The two were lucky on their third try according to Gwamolamba and they went back to the plot with the young boy. She says when they reached the plot, she proceeded with the young boy who cut a hole at the back fence and entered the plot.
Gwamolamba, who during the initial stages of the case spent some time in South Africa for chemotherapy sessions, says the boy then proceeded with the container full of petrol and torched the house.
But her co-accused has a different story. She does not indicate that there was someone hired for the job. She says her co-accused is the one who torched the house.
Godisang says Gwamolamba cut through the fence after indicating it was too high for her to jump over. She says because she remained in the car she only saw her co-accused go around to the front of the house with the container full of petrol.
“I was waiting for her. She came back running to the vehicle and I opened for her and we drove off,” she says.
The two claim they later spent the rest of the night at Godisang’s boyfriend’s house.
Mmegi can confirm that there are no eyewitnesses in the matter, which is expected to be committed to the High Court for trial.