When people kill and die for love

GALE NGAKANE
Correspondent | Tuesday March 23, 2010 00:00

In Mosetse, a man reportedly went berserk killing a policeman, injuring relatives and torching houses. Two of the houses were reported to belong to sangomas whose tools of the trade, herbs and money paid out by patients, perished in the inferno. The man reportedly killed himself when the police cornered him.

In another incident that has also left relatives in shock, a man reportedly picked up his lover at her place of work in Francistown and the duo drove to Mathangwane. On the way the man who was driving, kept telling the terrified woman who apparently was showing a remarkably cool head, that he was going to crash the car into one of those 'abnormal' vehicles with heavy loads, which was just ahead of them so that they could both be squashed to death.

The woman reportedly talked the lover out of doing so. Apparently the car belonged to the woman who was still paying for it. She pleaded with the man not to damage the car. Instead she told him, he could kill her when they arrive home in Mathangwane.

In Mathangwane the man is said to have tied two ropes to the rafters of the house they were in and fashioned two nooses out of the ropes. He then took two chairs and put them under the nooses and forced the woman to stand on one chair. The man then climbed onto the other chair and apparently missed the woman's chair when he tried kicking it from under the woman's feet, in the process his own chair gave way and the result was that he was left dangling while the woman managed to freed herself.

Whether she tried rescuing her potential killer or not is anybody's guess. But she walked out a free woman. Last week Mmegi reporters were trying to get hold of the woman to talk about her ordeal, but she pointedly refused saying she did not want to discuss her life in public.

The suicides, attempted suicides and other acts of violence are borne out of jealousy, which in most cases is displayed by men who feel threatened by other men.

From time immemorial, there have been cases of men stalking their wives or girlfriends, as they feared other men would snatch them.

A few years ago in a talk show on Radio Botswana, a man called from Orapa saying he had a very beautiful wife and felt that she was up to no good.

'Do not tell me that she is not doing anything on the side because beautiful as she is when she goes out into the street more than 10 men approach her. You cannot tell me that out of those men, at least two would not succeed in wooing her,' the man argued.

In the mid-1980s, a man who was knocking off from a nightshift at the Orapa's Red Area arrived home in Letlhakane to find a stranger sitting just outside his bedroom sweating profusely.

The stranger kept wiping the sweat with his handkerchief, alternatively fanning himself with it. When the miner got into the bedroom, he found the wife still in bed.

The husband grabbed a knobkerrie nearby and attacked the stranger.

'Just how do you come and sweat in my home,' he said as he lashed at the fleeing stranger with the knobkerrie.In another funny incident, a man knocked off from work and on arrival at home, he told his wife he was going to have 'ma-one-one' (beer) with friends at the bar. Around 10pm, he decided he had had enough and headed for home. He had barely opened the gate when he saw the lights inside the house being switched off. He thought nothing of it until he knocked and heard a male voice from within saying: 'Wait a minute.' To him, the voice meant one thing: 'The wife was cheating.'

After all he had left her alone. He simply went ballistic, crashing the door and raising a lot of commotion such that neighbours came rushing into the yard thinking marauding burglars had attacked the family.

Apparently, a cousin had arrived from their home village in his absence and was sleeping in the bedroom when he got in. The cousin had been sent to relay a message from the man's parents.

In yet another incident, a soldier at Area S was said to have arrived home to find a neighbour, who also happened to be a family friend, standing on his bed with his wife in a night dress sitting at the edge of the bed.

The man had been requested by the wife to install a new bulb.

The neighbour could not move the bed, hence, still in pyjamas, he removed his slippers and climbed onto the bed, at last that is what he claimed, and got busy fixing the bulb.

When the husband budged through the door and found his neighbour in that position, he fainted. While the wife was screaming and rushing out of the house the neighbour tried reviving him.

The issue of 'go boulela' (jealously guarding one's lover) is as old as prostitution, but Batswana elders are known to always advise young married couples against such a practice.

Men are counseled to always inform their spouses in advance when they will be home to avoid finding her in an uncompromising position. Also, wives are always told that men are jackals and must not be asked where they have been when they arrive home late.

If such advice were heeded, the harrowing incidents of passion killings and suicides would drastically drop.