Dambe and Rathami allegedly murdered Matebele between April 4 and 5, 2018, at or near Pandamatenga Farms in the Chobe Administrative District. Rathami is now an accomplice witness in the Matebele murder case. Matebele was a co-accused person in a case in which Dambe, the Director of Bano Investments and his wife, Tiny Dambe, a nurse by profession, and their ‘hitpeople’, Lesedi Khundu (Tiny’s close relative) along with Matebele, allegedly murdered, Dambe’s former girlfriend, Concilliah Ncube. Dambe caught a murder case that allegedly followed after a Magistrate Court ordered him to pay P300 monthly maintenance fees for each of the three children he fathered with Ncube before he married Tiny.
The trio (Dambe, Tiny, and Khundu), charged for Matebele's murder, is also indicted for allegedly attempting to murder four people, three of whom are children Dambe shared with Ncube. According to the charge sheet, on May 7, 2017, at Flowertown ward in Kazungula village in the Chobe District, the accused persons burnt a house occupied by Ncube, thereby causing her injuries on May 12, 2017, at the Kasane Primary Hospital. In the attempted murder count, the trio allegedly tried to set fire to the house with occupants, Moreblessing, Tshepiso, and Thabo Ncube (Dambe’s children with Ncube), and their relative Andrew Banoziba, who are also complainants in a separate murder case. The quartet that was sleeping in the house was victim to the arson in which Ncube sustained her fatal injuries. Matebele was allegedly murdered after he appeared in court for mention in Kasane for the Ncube murder case involving him (Dambe), Tiny, and Khundu.
During cross-examination on Friday, the IO, Detective Inspector Master Seleka said from the evidence he had gathered, it was clear that Dambe and Rathami had meticulously planned to kill Matebele. Seleka said they didn't merely assault him to scare him not to testify against Dambe after he (Matebele) became an accomplice witness in a case in which Dambe and three other people allegedly murdered Dambe’s ex-girlfriend, Ncube. Seleka said that when Dambe and Rathami took Matebele from Sesheke Bar in Kazungula, the accused taxi business owner and driver (Dambe), had told Matebele that he was transporting Rathami to the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) Camp in Pandamatenga at around 10pm. “From what I established, the accused and Rathami never planned to merely beat the deceased but they instead planned to kill him. “Rathami pretended that he was a soldier who was in urgent need of transport to travel to the BDF camp in Pandamatenga.
The accused and deceased were in the same car and they drove to Kazungula intending to kill Matebele,” Seleka said in response to a question by defence counsel, Wetshootsile Tshimologo. When Tshimologo said that he put it to Seleka that Dambe and Rathami intended to merely beat Matebele to scare him not to testify in the murder case in which he (Matebele) was implicated with Dambe, Seleka answered: “That isn't true. In a normal situation of beating, you can’t assault someone and leave him in the bush in a wildlife-infested area. Also considering the distance of about 120km from Kazungula to Pandamatenga at around 10pm, the accused and Rathami had planned to kill Matebele secretly.” Seleka also dismissed the claim by the defence that after Dambe and Rathami assaulted Matebele, they left him about three metres from the Francistown-Kasane road. “That isn't true.
What I established from the accused and Rathami is that they beat Matebele and left him motionless about 30 metres from the road. The deceased wasn't alive after the accused and Rathami beat him repeatedly with a spade on the head,” said Seleka. Seleka also refuted the claim by the defence that wild animals could have devoured Matebele when he was still alive after Dambe and Rathami assaulted him. “I don’t agree with that claim although I didn't find the body of the deceased intact at the scene of the crime. We didn't find the skull and legs of the deceased but I don’t know much about human body parts. The pathologist is best placed to answer the question of which body parts were missing,” Seleka responded. Kamogelo Maleke is prosecutor in the matter. The case will continue on August 11 and 12.
