Gomolemo Motswaledi who may have been feeling a bit under the weather was listening to Shumba Ratshega, Nnunu Ramogotsi and the Mighty Clouds of Joy on his CD player before he died in a freak car accident Wednesday morning. Although the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) president took vital information about his final hours to his grave, the Sunday Standard team has been able to reconstruct part of his last 24 hours.
A clutch of CDs and containers of across the counter drugs were among an assortment of goods recovered from the accident scene. His passport BN 0029793 was stamped at the Tokweng border gate in Botswana and Kopfontein in South Africa on the morning of 29th July 2014 marking the beginning of his journey. The trail, however, vanishes until it re-emerges at Mandela Square in Sandton a few hours later where Motswaledi bought neck ties at the Tie Shop. A till slip which has been passed to the Sunday Standard reveals that at 2:28 pm on 29th of July he spent R 410 at the Tie shop on an orange microfiber crav, a white bow tie, an orange bow tie, an orange and yellow stripped tie and a yellow and white tie.
Motswaledi also bought neck ties from the Twill, but the receipts and till slips showing the purchase are missing from the police exhibit bag. The paper trail emerges again three hours later at 17:14 in Venterdorp where he stopped at Blue Alley Trading to fill up 42.26 litres of unleaded petrol at R600.09 The paper trail suggests that Motswaledi drove to and from Johannesburg on the same day, July 29th. The trail however grows cold at Venterdorp until it emerges the following day on the morning of 30th July when his passport was stamped at Ramatlabama border showing his return back to the country.
There, however is no clue to explain why he did not drive all the way back to Botswana on the evening of July 29th, and where he spent the night. He had packed his toilet bag together with a pair of check pajama pants suggesting that he had planned to spend the night in South Africa. Two small plastic containers of of Panado tablets, a nasal spray and a container of Grippon tablets suggests that he may have been feeling a bit under the weather. The Panado and Grippon containers were however still sealed at the time he met his accident.
Police officers who went to the scene shortly after the accident also recovered a sealed 750ml bottle of Captain Morgan Whisky, a sealed 750 bottle of Knights Whisky, a sealed 750ml bottle of Hill & Dale wine and a 500 ml can of sprite also sealed. Although the liquor bottles have price tags denominated in Rands, there was no till slip or receipt indicating where Motswaledi, a known teetotaler stopped to buy the liquor. The police officers also recovered a number of memory sticks, two cellular phone handsets, an iPod and P1780 ÔÇô 00 cash among other things.
