Fraudulent Land Board Official Kills Witness
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday March 20, 2017 18:00
Thabo Makhwa, 38, who is employed at Thamaga Sub-Land Board, is also alleged to have fraudulently used his position to profit from community land around Thamaga.
Last week, he appeared for mention at the Magistrate’s Court for the alleged murder of his friend, Itheeng who had turned state witness in a case involving Makhwa’s alleged fraudulent land dealings as a Land Board official.
Itheeng, from Thamaga, was buried last week, days ahead of Makhwa’s Court mention where he was to answer for a fraudulent land transaction in which Itheeng’s names were used to register a certain piece of land.
Itheeng had spilled the beans when he was called by a Land Board officer concerning the plot, which he was about to transfer to a new buyer. He told the officer that he knew nothing about the existence of such a plot and subsequently implicated Makhwa as the one who knew everything about those things.
It is alleged that a few days before the case, Makhwa served Itheeng a poisoned beer (on March 6) from which he died moments later.
Makhwa did not attend his friend’s funeral, and allegedly went into hiding until he was smoked out by a team of police investigators after it surfaced through village talk that Makhwa had confessed to a few people that he had poisoned Itheeng, but not with the intention of murdering him.
Police spokesperson, Witness Bosija confirmed the incident. “Makhwa appeared in Court last Wednesday charged with the murder of 37-year-old Itheeng. We have just started investigating the matter,” he said.
Bosija applauded the public who came forward to report the matter when the family could not report, as they did not know what to do.
He said their investigations are likely to include exhuming the body to conduct a post mortem to determine the cause of death.
According to the family spokesperson Kebonyekgotla Keabetswe, Makhwa came to their house Monday (March 6) evening after they had just learnt about the death of their son. “He told us that Itheeng came to his house in the morning telling him that he wanted a beer to relieve hangover from the previous night. He said he then told him he would pick him up at a certain depot so he can help him at his bar. He said he indeed fulfilled his promise and picked him up before they went to collect crates from the bar and went to buy stock,” he said.
“He said as he was busy packing stock, he gave Itheeng a beer and later found him with his head on the counter complaining of a headache. He said he then rushed him to the hospital and left him there with intention of coming to inform us of what had transpired, but found no one home twice,” he said.
“We are still shocked as how someone who was said to be best friends with our son would vanish without a word, it makes us uncomfortable, especially with the village talk making rounds that Makhwa poisoned our son,” he said.
According to sources in the village, Makhwa confessed to some people that he had mistakenly killed Itheeng after he had turned a state witness in a case in which the two were charged with conniving to steal and sell plots.
He told another friend that he did not mean to kill Itheeng but just weaken him so he cannot be able to take a stand in court. “It is alleged that Makhwa had been selling plots he applied for using Itheeng’s names,” the source said.
Meanwhile another source at the Thamaga Sub Land Board told The Monitor that Itheeng had transferred a number of plots from his names to different people. “There are still applications in the names of Makhwa and Itheeng. Something strange happened in January when Itheeng was invited over as he had made clear intentions to transfer ownership of his plot in Kumakwane.
He did not pitch up and when he was called to ask why he did not pitch up when his buyer had come, he told the officers that he had nothing to do with the plot and that they should call Makhwa,” the source said.
The source said they were waiting for Itheeng to explain what had happened.