Mystery deaths rock Kgari royal family

The two tragic accidents which claimed the lives of four family members in two different places in a period of hours have raised eyebrows in residents of Kgari village as they suspect witchcraft to be behind the unfortunate incidents.

The nightmare for the Kgari royal house began on Friday when Uyapo English was involved in a horrific accident in Gaborone. English met his fate at the traffic lights near Fairgrounds fuel station when the trailer of a truck loaded with sand overturned and buried him in his Golf GTI as he waited for the traffic lights to open for him.

As if that was not enough, hours later, Uyapo’s best friend Kombani Stanford, as well as his brother Koga English, his mother Maria English, his sister Kedibonye Motimedi and his four-year old nephew Mphaphi Motimedi were also involved in a tragic road accident along the A1 road in Tsamaya village.

According to Uyapo’s younger brother Koga, a survivor in the Tsamaya accident, they were travelling to Kgari when the Nissan bakkie they were travelling in suddenly lost control. “We did not hit anything, the road was clear. I trust Kombani Stanford’s driving. He has been driving for a long time and I have travelled with him so many times,” a shaken Koga told The Midweek Sun. Stanford, who is also a friend of the family, is said to be recovering at Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital in Francistown.

The Chief of Kgari village, Godfrey English, who is a close relative to the deceased, expressed shock at the horrific incident. “I have never experienced such a thing in my life, this is the first story of its nature anywhere,” he said. The village chief said that they were expecting the two deceased women to meet them in Kgari so that they could then proceed to Gaborone to fetch the remains of his Uyapo who had died on Friday. “While waiting for his mother, brother and sister to arrive, we were instead given the news of their accident and resultant death,” the Chief told The Midweek Sun.

Kgari is a small village of a few hundreds of people, and the entire settlement had everyone murmuring that the mysterious deaths were the works of chieftainship related witchcraft. But the Chief would not be drawn into looking at the mishap the way his villagers viewed it. He told The Midweek Sun: “It is nothing like that. It is just a misfortune, and there is nothing we can do other than to accept things as they have happened.”

But those who gathered at the family home yesterday still insisted that the two accidents were works of evil. “There is no misfortune of this nature, God does not do such things. I know every dog has his day, but not this. I strongly feel something has to be done,” said a mourner who declined to share her name. Commenting anonymously on the sidelines of the family compound, another man said he suspected foul play. He said that one accident which went viral on Facebook in which a woman’s body was cut in half, was very strange. He said that the lady was also from a small settlement near Kgari. “How can people die like this, it is suspicious,” he said.

Tapson English, the old man who in this instant has now lost a wife, a son, a daughter and a grandson in the two accidents, was itching to share his take on the accidents with The Midweek Sun team that visited the family yesterday, but other close family representatives, including the chief, blocked him, saying he should not say anything. “Tell them you do not know anything, you have just heard,” said the family member. The distraught old man, who is also blind, verbally attacked the relatives, saying they should not have said his visitors to come into the family compound if he could not be allowed to say anything to them.

The chief said that such issues should be handled with circumspect lest people end up accusing each other falsely. Tshesebe Station Commander, Amos Kekgathetse said police investigations into the cause of the Tsamaya accident were ongoing. He however said that there was suspicion the driver could have lost control of the car due to fatigue. “There were five people in the car including a minor, two lost their lives on the spot while three are recovering in Nyangabwe hospital,” Kekgathetse had told The Midweek Sun earlier, before the news of the four-year old’s death later followed yesterday.