TOO CRUEL
This Wednesday marks five days since celebrated Ramotswa businessman Calvin Marope was stabbed to death by the gate of his girlfriend’s house in Magope ward just after 3am on Saturday.
By Tuesday evening this week, no suspect was arrested and the police were yet to find any lead to who could have committed the horrendous murder.
Speaking to The Midweek Sun yesterday, the deceased’s sisters who practically served as his parents, Thandie Motshwaedi and Kelebogile Marope confirmed having heard of no trace of the suspects despite efforts by both the police and members of the community to track the assailants. Ramotswa police station commander Superintendent Keoagile Tau confirmed that investigations were ongoing and that the attackers were yet to be arrested.
Calvin’s live-in partner and business associate, Tebogo Molebo, who yesterday could not hold back the tears when speaking of how his man died in his arms, also said ununiformed police officers only came Tuesday afternoon to appreciate the scene of the crime, but said they had no leads yet, about the identity of the their attackers. Tebogo reveals that there were four men who attacked them on arrival at her house, where Calvin had moved in for the past three years.
"When we arrived and parked in front of the gate, there was nothing that looked suspicious, and as he has always done before whenever we arrive home, Calvin went out of the car to open the gate. While I was looking in his direction, just as he was about to open it, someone hit the passenger door where I was seated, flung it open and pulled me out, shoved me to the ground and pinned me face-down with his boot. He shouted ‘bring the money, bring the money.’ I was screaming and telling him we had no money and while I was fighting back, my head was able to turn to the direction of the gate where I saw three of them beating up Cally while also pressing him to the ground. He too was screaming for help while they were beating him with some objects, telling him to give them money,” narrated Tebogo, who sustained a cut by her left eye following a hard kick in her face.
She says it was after some minutes of persistence by the attackers that the one who had pinned her down stopped ransacking her and asked the others to let go because they could see there was no money. “A re vayeng, lea utlwa gore ba re ga baa tshwara madi,” the man is said to have called out while running towards a nearby passage where the rest would follow him and disappear. Cally was able to get back on his feet, asking Tebogo if she was okay, went round the van he came driving and went to rest by the driver’s seat. All the while, he was asking if Tebogo was hurt, and that she should call for help.
“The painful part is that as he was asking me if I am fine, and I was getting back on my feet, he seemed okay and even told me he was able to see their faces. I went round to the driver’s seat to check on how he was. He leaned by the seat with his leg hanging outside. I took it he was just resting from the fight and was okay, only to discover that there was a lot of blood on his entire leg, coming also from the upper body. I realised he was badly hurt and started to panic. There were only the two of us there,” she said, adding that they discovered the assailants had even made away with the car keys for the van.
Tebogo would then rush into the yard where other vehicles were parked, and managed to find the keys to one, which she started and reversed to the gate where she had intended to help Cally into the vehicle to rush him to hospital. It was then that she felt an unusual movement of the car, only to realise the tyres to the car were punctured. They had been pricked with a sharp object. The other vehicles in the yard had their tyres punctured, which prompted her to inform Cally whose body was still leaning by the passenger seat. “He was not responding, and when I went closer to talk to him, I found he was motionless and his body cold. In panic I rushed to go knock at a neighbour’s door. “The woman helped me call the police and the hospital for an ambulance.
It was the police who arrived first and they too called for an ambulance, although they were hinting that Cally was already lifeless,” Tebogo told The Midweek Sun. When they realised it was taking long for the ambulance to come, they lifted Calvin into their van to rush him to hospital, where he was confirmed dead.
Calvin's sister Kelebogile revealed that his body had deep cuts on the neck and legs, that he had a broken skull and his hands were also severed perhaps from trying to block off the objects he was hit with. “He sustained a broken leg at the shin, which was left loose and hanging. So even if he had survived, he would not be able to walk again on that leg,” the elder sister shared. The attackers, it appears, had all along been waiting inside Tebogo’s compound for the couple to arrive, where they had also attempted to break into the house and had damaged the door locks, which would not open when Tebogo had tried to get into the house. Footprints showed that they then moved to a house in the neighbourhood where they must have been when the couple arrived in their van.
The eldest sister Thandie said they were planning to lay him to rest on Saturday, and said a memorial service was being arranged by other artists and promoters for Thursday. “He was an artist and a promoter and has for a long time worked with Fresh Lesokwane who is now leading the preparations for the memorial service,” she said. Despite living with his girlfriend Tebogo for some years, the funeral service will take place at his parents’ home. Tebogo worked with Cally on their entertainment industry businesses, with the woman as the Director of Unique2 Pub and Grill while the man promoted and marketed the businesses. They were to open another restaurant at Tashy’s Royal Gardens in a week, a project now put on hold while funeral arrangements are concluded.
By Tuesday evening this week, no suspect was arrested and the police were yet to find any lead to who could have committed the horrendous murder.
Speaking to The Midweek Sun yesterday, the deceased’s sisters who practically served as his parents, Thandie Motshwaedi and Kelebogile Marope confirmed having heard of no trace of the suspects despite efforts by both the police and members of the community to track the assailants. Ramotswa police station commander Superintendent Keoagile Tau confirmed that investigations were ongoing and that the attackers were yet to be arrested.
Calvin’s live-in partner and business associate, Tebogo Molebo, who yesterday could not hold back the tears when speaking of how his man died in his arms, also said ununiformed police officers only came Tuesday afternoon to appreciate the scene of the crime, but said they had no leads yet, about the identity of the their attackers. Tebogo reveals that there were four men who attacked them on arrival at her house, where Calvin had moved in for the past three years.
"When we arrived and parked in front of the gate, there was nothing that looked suspicious, and as he has always done before whenever we arrive home, Calvin went out of the car to open the gate. While I was looking in his direction, just as he was about to open it, someone hit the passenger door where I was seated, flung it open and pulled me out, shoved me to the ground and pinned me face-down with his boot. He shouted ‘bring the money, bring the money.’ I was screaming and telling him we had no money and while I was fighting back, my head was able to turn to the direction of the gate where I saw three of them beating up Cally while also pressing him to the ground. He too was screaming for help while they were beating him with some objects, telling him to give them money,” narrated Tebogo, who sustained a cut by her left eye following a hard kick in her face.
She says it was after some minutes of persistence by the attackers that the one who had pinned her down stopped ransacking her and asked the others to let go because they could see there was no money. “A re vayeng, lea utlwa gore ba re ga baa tshwara madi,” the man is said to have called out while running towards a nearby passage where the rest would follow him and disappear. Cally was able to get back on his feet, asking Tebogo if she was okay, went round the van he came driving and went to rest by the driver’s seat. All the while, he was asking if Tebogo was hurt, and that she should call for help.
“The painful part is that as he was asking me if I am fine, and I was getting back on my feet, he seemed okay and even told me he was able to see their faces. I went round to the driver’s seat to check on how he was. He leaned by the seat with his leg hanging outside. I took it he was just resting from the fight and was okay, only to discover that there was a lot of blood on his entire leg, coming also from the upper body. I realised he was badly hurt and started to panic. There were only the two of us there,” she said, adding that they discovered the assailants had even made away with the car keys for the van.
Tebogo would then rush into the yard where other vehicles were parked, and managed to find the keys to one, which she started and reversed to the gate where she had intended to help Cally into the vehicle to rush him to hospital. It was then that she felt an unusual movement of the car, only to realise the tyres to the car were punctured. They had been pricked with a sharp object. The other vehicles in the yard had their tyres punctured, which prompted her to inform Cally whose body was still leaning by the passenger seat. “He was not responding, and when I went closer to talk to him, I found he was motionless and his body cold. In panic I rushed to go knock at a neighbour’s door. “The woman helped me call the police and the hospital for an ambulance.
It was the police who arrived first and they too called for an ambulance, although they were hinting that Cally was already lifeless,” Tebogo told The Midweek Sun. When they realised it was taking long for the ambulance to come, they lifted Calvin into their van to rush him to hospital, where he was confirmed dead.
Calvin's sister Kelebogile revealed that his body had deep cuts on the neck and legs, that he had a broken skull and his hands were also severed perhaps from trying to block off the objects he was hit with. “He sustained a broken leg at the shin, which was left loose and hanging. So even if he had survived, he would not be able to walk again on that leg,” the elder sister shared. The attackers, it appears, had all along been waiting inside Tebogo’s compound for the couple to arrive, where they had also attempted to break into the house and had damaged the door locks, which would not open when Tebogo had tried to get into the house. Footprints showed that they then moved to a house in the neighbourhood where they must have been when the couple arrived in their van.
The eldest sister Thandie said they were planning to lay him to rest on Saturday, and said a memorial service was being arranged by other artists and promoters for Thursday. “He was an artist and a promoter and has for a long time worked with Fresh Lesokwane who is now leading the preparations for the memorial service,” she said. Despite living with his girlfriend Tebogo for some years, the funeral service will take place at his parents’ home. Tebogo worked with Cally on their entertainment industry businesses, with the woman as the Director of Unique2 Pub and Grill while the man promoted and marketed the businesses. They were to open another restaurant at Tashy’s Royal Gardens in a week, a project now put on hold while funeral arrangements are concluded.
