‘Couple hires hitman to murder ex-girlfriend, children’
Accomplice witness ‘spills the beans’ ‘Promised P100, 000 to murder deceased’ ‘Offence stems from P300 child maintenance fees’
FRANCISTOWN: An alleged hitman, Kenosi Rathami, has revealed sordid details of what allegedly transpired when he and his financer, Banoziba Dambe, murdered Gaone Matebele in a bid to conceal evidence in a murder case implicating Dambe and Matebele.
Dambe and Rathami allegedly murdered Matebele between April 4 and 5 in 2018 at or near Pandamatenga farms in the Chobe Administrative District of Botswana. 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, a nurse by profession, and their assassins, Lesedi Khunou (Tiny’s close relative) and Gaone Matebele allegedly murdered, Dambe’s former girlfriend, Concilliah Ncube.
Dambe’s murder case allegedly happened after a Magistrate Court ordered Dambe to pay P300 monthly maintenance fees for each of the children he fathered with Ncube before he married Tiny. The trio, Dambe, Tiny and Khunou, is also indicted for allegedly attempting to murder four people, three of whom are Dambe’s children 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 from which she later succumbed to on May 12, 2017, at the Kasane Primary Hospital.
In the attempted murder count, the trio allegedly tried to set fire to the house the complainants,
Moreblessing, Tshepiso and Thabo, who are Dambe’s children with Ncube and their relative Andrew Banoziba, were sleeping in on May 7, 2017, at Flowertown ward in Kazungula.
Matebele was allegedly murdered after he appeared in court for mention in Kasane in a murder case involving him (Dambe), Tiny, and Khunou.
Harrowing details of how Matebele allegedly met his death were revealed when Dambe appeared before Justice Gaolapelwe Ketlogetswe for continuation of trial this week.
Rathami told the court that Dambe hired him with P100, 000 to kill Matebele because he (Matebele) had turned into an accomplice witness in the murder case implicating him (Dambe), Tiny and Khunou.
Asked by the defence attorney Wetshootsile Tshimologo if Dambe had told him why he (Dambe) wanted Matebele dead, Rathami said: “Dambe told me that he wanted Matebele dead because Matebele was a co-accused in a murder case which also implicates him (Dambe) but Matebele has since turned into an accomplice witness…” Rathami also revealed that after Dambe hatched a plan to kill Matebele, they (Rathami and Dambe) went to Dambe’s place whereupon Dambe entered the house and came out of the house with a spade and a green rope which he put in the boot of his Honda Fit.
By then, Rathami told the court that Matebele was drunk to the extent that he did not notice when Dambe’s car arrived at his (Dambe’s) home and when Dambe entered his house and came out with a spade and rope.
“Dambe opened his car and put the spade and rope in the boot without Matebele, who was sitting in the front passenger seat with his head bowed because he had been drinking alcohol the whole day, noticing nothing. Dambe then surreptitiously opened and closed the boot of his car. We then left Dambe’s place in Kasane and drove on the road leading to Pandamatenga village. Whilst on the way around midnight, Dambe gave me a can of Coca-cola that he was drinking and instructed me to pour brake fluid inside the can…I later gave Matebele the Coca-cola drink that was laced with brake fluid and he drank it.
Matebele’s state of drunkenness increased and he blacked out. When we were in between the Pandamatenga farms, Dambe stopped the car and told me to alight from it. Dambe also alighted from his car and went to the boot and took a spade and gave it to me. When I opened the front passenger door at that point, Matebele escaped but he fell a few metres from the road where the car was parked,” said Rathami.
Rathami continued: “There was a point at which myself and Matebele fell to the ground after I chased him while he tried to escape. I then hit Matebele with the spade on the neck on the flat side of the spade.
Dambe then took the spade from me and smashed Matebele on the head at the sharp part of the blade repeatedly. Dambe then threw the spade into the bush and then we drove back to Kasane… Along the way, Dambe threw Matebele’s cell phone, t-shirt and hat in the bush. Whilst on the way, I asked Dambe how much he was going to pay me for helping him to kill Matebele and he said he will pay me P100, 000. He later dropped me off at my place…”
During cross-examination by Tshimologo, Rathami denied that Dambe had left him at the scene of crime following the commission of the offence…
Rathami also told the court that the place where he and Dambe had allegedly murdered Matebele was a wildlife area which was frequented by hyenas and wild dogs.
Rathami also told the court that they murdered Matebele in a wildlife area with the hope that wild animals will later devour his body, adding: “Matebele’s head was never seen after we murdered him.” The court also heard that Dambe has only paid Rathami P3, 000 for allegedly helping to murder Matebele…
Kamogelo Maleke appears for the State in the ongoing trial.