SASA KLAAS’S MOTHER QUESTIONS PILOT
Was it safe to take off in a helicopter at 6pm?
That was the question that Annah Mokgethi, the grieving mother of the late Hip-hop artist, Sasa Klass - born Sarona Mokgethi - wanted the pilot of the helicopter that crashed and killed her daughter to answer at an inquest that started in Molepolole on Wednesday.
In March last year, the 27-year-old queen of Hip-hop died in a fatal helicopter crash at a rich businessman’s farm in Sojwe in the Kweneng District.
This week, her mother, who is also the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, appeared in court and cross-examined Leonard Matenje, the businessman and pilot who was in the cockpit when the fatal accident occurred.
Detailing the happenings of the fateful night - Matenje, who had remained mum and turned down interview requests before he finally broke his silence in court - started by defining the relationship between him and Sasa Klaas as a friendship that had started barely a year before she met her death with him in his helicopter.
According to Matenje, just as friends would, he and Sasa Klass would occasionally meet for lunch dates and, on the day in question, she had expressed interest in travelling with him to his game farm in Xumabee.
“She left her car at my workplace and we proceeded to Rasesa where my helicopter was parked. We left around 6pm. It was just the two of us and our intention was to return on Sunday morning,” Matenje told the court.