Salon owner Maria Moketa’s holidays were the furthest thing from festive as armed robbers rustled her home and establishment in White City within a space of minutes, taking with them P6400, cellphones and two camp chairs.
Narrating the harrowing ordeal, a distraught Moketa said she was alone plaiting a client at around 2am on December 23rd when four masked men kicked down the door to her salon and demanded cash. “During busy holidays such as this one, I usually work until the morning, which is why I was at the salon at that hour,” she explained.
Evidently worked up about reliving the calamity, she recalled one of the men pointing a gun in her face while they made this demand.
As if she had anticipated it, she says her client had snuck under a nearby table as soon as the door flung open, as if she had known what was coming.
She says the men fled after taking P2 400 from her purse as well as her and her client’s phones. “What I found odd though is that they told me to unlock my phone but did not ask the other lady to unlock hers.”
Out of relief that her life had at least been spared, she called home to inform her partner of what had just happened, only to learn that her home which is five minutes away had also just been hit.
The quartet is said to have also kicked down the door to her house and found her partner ironing.
“They demanded money and threatened to burn him with the iron if he did not cooperate and they took cell phones, two camp chairs and P4000”.
The camp chairs were retrieved that morning by police officers on patrol who chased after a group of suspicious looking men. The men ditched the camp chairs in their flight.
Moketa believes vehemently that the attack was orchestrated by people who knew very well that she would be working at that hour.
Urban Police’s Assistant Superintendent Kabelo Letshwiti confirmed the incident, noting that the case is under investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department.
The group is suspected to be responsible for another robbery that took place at another outlet in Gaborone .
