POLOKWANE – John Mothiba, the husband of the late Sarah Mothiba who is one of the seven victims who were kidnapped and murdered in and around Polokwane, says the postponements in the case makes it difficult for the family to move on.
Mothiba spoke to Polokwane Observer outside the Seshego Magistrate’s Court on Monday where Zimbabwean national Themba Dube appeared.
He faces seven counts of kidnapping and seven of murder. The case was postponed to April 12 to allow for the DNA result confirmation for two of the victims.
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Family, friends and residents of Polokwane and Seshego came out in their numbers to support the relatives of the victims and demanded that Dube remain in custody, warning that they would retaliate should he be released.
Police officials had to be deployed to the gate of the court after protestors were threatening to open the police van and beat Dube after his court appearance.
Dube had to be escorted out by police officials and protestors vowed to not let him back into the community should he be released.
Mothiba says after the family received his wife’s remains and prepared for the funeral, they thought they would be able to get closure but now they realised that they will only get closure after the suspect had been found guilty and sentenced.
He detailed the last time he saw his wife and the series of incidents that followed.
“When she left that morning on October 18, she kissed me goodbye and said she would see me when she came back from work later that day. Little did I know that that would be the last time I’d see my wife of over 20 years.”
John says he received calls from Dube later that day, demanding that the family send him ransom money for Sarah’s release.
“This man threatened us, and he had the nerve to tell us that he will keep her safe if we send him the money. I only had R1 000 and I sent it to him but he said it was not enough. Eventually we sent him R2 500 in total and he stopped taking our calls. That’s when the reality of what was happening sunk in.”
Mothiba alleges that Dube also took the money his wife had on her and cleared out her account before he called the family for the ransom money.
A missing person’s case was opened with the police but it was almost a month later when they received a call letting them know that a suspect had been found in possession of her cellphone.
“It was devastating to hear, even more because she was not the only one. Even though he had gone silent on us after receiving the money, we hoped that she was still alive and that she would be reunited with her family. He deserves to rot in jail for tearing my family apart and taking my beautiful wife away from me.”
Sarah was survived by her husband and two children.
According to Mothiba, their sons seem to be coping, “but I always fear that they might be afraid to speak out about the pain of losing their mother”.
