Crucial closed circuit television (CCTV) footage showing Gomolemo Motswaledi with an unknown companion believed to be the last person to see him alive is missing.
The Sunday Standard investigation team has been able to reconstruct Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) president’s journey from Gaborone on July 29th through the Tlokweng border to Sandton in Johannesburg and back via Ventersdorp, Coligny, Lichtenburg and Mafikeng where he spent the night.
Motswaledi checked in at Kobo Segole Guest Lodge in Mafikeng, 31 Churchill Avenue on the night of July 29th at 20:11 and was booked at House 29 room 10.
Hotel attendants told Sunday Standard that shortly after checking in Motswaledi returned to the reception dressed in his checked pyjamas and sleeping gown and asked to be connected to the hotel Wi-Fi so that he could check his e-mail.
While still going through his mail at the reception lounge, a woman walked through the door and told the man behind the reception desk that “Ke batla monna yole” (I am looking for that man).
The pair then left the reception together and that was the last time they saw Motswaledi. “He did not check out from his room, even the security men on duty say they did not see him leave in the morning but strange enough, his room keys were handed in”, said the hotel spokesperson.
The hotel security this week sifted through hours of CCTV footage for the woman who left the hotel reception with Motswaledi, but could not find any trace of her even though the cameras covered the whole reception area and the exit.
The missing film is from a crucial window of time during which Motswaledi was last seen at the hotel and in the company of the person believed to be the last to see him alive.
The colour film only shows Motswaledi checking in at the hotel dressed in a dark suit and later seated on a couch in his sleeping gown, going through his iPad.
Motswaledi’s dead body was discovered by police officers on the driver’s seat of an Audi A3 wreck reported to have overturned.
The Sunday Standard investigation desk has been able to reconstruct Motswaledi’s journey from the morning he left Gaborone on July 29th to the morning of July 30 when his dead body was discovered.
His passport BN 0029793 was stamped at the Tlokweng border in Botswana and Kopfontein in South Africa on the morning of 29th July 2014.
About 10 am he was already in Sandton. At 10:40 am he bought R 200 worth of SIM card and air time at an MTN store in Sandton and was helped by a Joshua Du Wet, a salesperson at the shop.
There is a window of about four hours which the Sunday Standard investigation team cannot account for. At 2:28 pm Motswaledi re-emerges at Mandela Square still in Sandton where he spent R410 on an orange microfiber crav, a white bow tie, an orange bow tie, a yellow stripped tie and a yellow and white tie at the Tie Shop.
Motswaledi then left Sandton shortly thereafter and drove back until he stopped at Blue Alley Filling Station in Ventersdorp where he filled 42.26 liters of Petrol worth R600.09 assisted by a Donald Matlhaku, a petrol attendant at the service station.
Motswaledi then drove through Coligny and Lichtenburg to Mafikeng where he is believed to have spent the night. He checked in at Kobo Segole Guest Lodge in Mafikeng at 20:11 and was booked at House 29 room 10.
Hotel staff, however say there are no records showing that he checked out and no one saw him leave the hotel on the morning of July 30.
