Mob justice ends man’s life
When Molepolole man Moatlhodi Kotlhao, 30, left his parents’ house one Tuesday morning last month with his friend, his mother did not know that it was the last time she was seeing him alive. The man from Motswasele ward was killed by an angry mob that attacked him near Sedumedi JSS after being found with electric cables inside his bag, which they alleged he had stolen from inside people’s houses. When The Midweek Sun team visited his family last week, a group of his family elders were still gathered after the burial. Sad, empty and confused, his mother Nnanaarona said that she was visited by two police officers on September 25, who asked her to call her neighbours as there was something sensitive that they wanted to tell her. Her husband Mpokolo Kotlhao was in the house bathing, she says. “When the neighbours arrived, they told us that someone suspected to be my son had been killed in a mob justice and that we should go to the hospital to identify if it’s him, which we did,” she said, with tears welling in her eyes, adding that she learned that his head and lungs were injured as ‘everyone at the scene took a share in beating him.’ Both parents say that he was found with stolen electric cables. Describing him, his mother said he was well-mannered and a man of few words. She revealed that Moatlhodi, popularly known as Zoba in Molepolole, had no criminal record, save for a rape allegation by the mother of his son who later went and withdrew it after three months in 2014. She stated that the girlfriend admitted to being influenced by people to ‘fix’ him. The case, she said, had not even gone to the courts while Moatlhodi was still remanded in custody. His father used the word ‘mmonadilo’ to describe him and said that he once shared with him how a group of men once chased him down a road, after mistaking him for a thief they were running after. He however said they left him when they realised he was not the one. “His friends tell us that even when they were out drinking, he liked peace and never got involved in fights. They say he would leave whenever a fight started,” said the father, adding that he was informed that the cables found inside Moatlhodi’s bag were worth P2000. “We are told he was not alone and that their footprints were found inside the yard of some people at Sedumedi. He was wearing menangaso when he left. Up to now, we have not seen nor heard from anyone with missing cables but we do admit that he left home with the bag. “But again, it is inhuman how our son died. We know of worse criminals who are still roaming the streets. We want justice to prevail soon. Let the people who killed my son bring him back or get killed too!” he said with clear pain on his face. Molepolole Station Commander, Superintendent Charles Mbengwa confirmed the incident and said that they were still looking for the culprits. “We have to work on information from people and right now it’s not easy since it involves loss of life. “But we are working to find leakages. Mob justice is against the law and it doesn’t matter what someone had done. Don’t take the law into your hands, allow law enforcement officials to handle the case. Let them find evidence that will prove someone’s guilt before attacking them,” he said. If found, the perpetrators will be charged with murder, he said.