Molepolole Shocked By Public Murder

Pini Bothoko | Monday February 25, 2019 13:43

When The Monitor team arrived yesterday afternoon at the grieving family’s home at Borakalalo ward in Molepolole, we found the deceased’s family sitting under the tent with symphathisers. Sorrow was written all over their faces.

In the wake of what transpired in the village, we had been assigned to visit their home to get the story from the family. On arrival, we found mourners milling about the place. We mustered the courage to request to see the elders to share with us what transpired on Friday.

After our introductions, we were shown to a seat to await four elders who were caucusing by the far corner of the tent as we entered. After a while, two women came and sat next to us. We introduced ourselves and our mission to them.

On hearing we were from the private media one of the women exclaimed, “Re setse re boile le babega dikgang ba Daily News. Tota rona gare batle go bona maina a rona mo frontpage ya pampiri ya lona, kana dipampiri tse tsa lona tse kego rekisa ka batho fela.”

“We are in mourning. We have lost our daughter and it’s sad because the person who killed her is still at large.

We are in fear. We will rest only after his arrest by the police. Recently, our daughter reported her to the police, and they were called and she took the decision to end the relationship. After that, we heard rumours that he was threatening to kill some of our family members, since then we have been living in fear. He killed our daughter, but we are still in fear of the worst as he is out somewhere maybe plotting his next move,” one family member said.

Another family member said they also do not want the suspect’s family to read about their thoughts about their son in newspapers since they are the people who they know and relate well with.

“How will his family think of me or feel if they read the things that I might say about their son and the horrible things he has done to our daughter? It will not be right. I am sorry we cannot help you. We have agreed to be interviewed by Daily News reporters because unlike you who are after sales, they cannot twist our words,” she said.

Despite giving them the assurance of not going to twist their words the family decline to comment.

After that The Monitor team drove around the village to interview people about the tragedy and all of them were not comfortable talking about Motlhabane.

It appears that he (Motlhabane) is a feared man and people have been afraid of him even before what happened on Friday because they all mentioned that he once killed a man who was allegedly feared and terrorising the police.

“I was not around on Friday, but I heard the sad news that transpired at the Kgotla on Friday. You can imagine who can do such a thing especially at the Kgotla, a place that should be respected at all times, but Motlhabane was brave enough to go there and stab her girlfriend to death with a knife,” said one resident.

He went on to say it was a sad incident because Motlhabane attacked the deceased whilst in the company of other women in the absence of a male.

“I heard that she was on duty with other women without a man. Even cluster policing workers who were on duty were women. I suspect that if there were male persons in their company, they could have tried to intervene and stop him before killing her,” he said.

Approached by The Monitor team whilst sitting under a tree, a man who preferred anonymity said he was shocked by Motlhabane’s actions despite being a murder convict as he killed her girlfriend at the Kgotla.

“It shows that he does not have respect. He is a killer who does not even respect the Kgotla. I wish the police could locate him for the sake of the deceased’s family who are probably in deepest fear,” he said.

Reached for comment, Officer Commanding, Senior Superintendent Modise Gabatshwane said the police have launched and intensified their manhunt for Motlhabane who disappeared since the incident.

The murder occurred at around 8am after the deceased and her co-workers had reported for duty. After stabbing the deceased multiple times, she was rushed to Scottish Livingstone Hospital where the doctors certified her dead on arrival.