Rest in Peace Mohato [Gomora]

Have you ever been so desperate for help that you put trust in your worst enemy; did you ever think Sonto and Mohato would work together again after the ex convict almost killed her and her grandchildren?

A parent’s worst nightmare

Gladys — who is also sister to Mohato — had a huge order or scones to bake for her Church. With a batch of scones in the oven and dough in the mixing bowl, Gomora’s do-gooder could not get away from her kitchen. So she sent Ntokozo and Teddy to deliver scones to church. Her car was out of petrol, so she authorized the boys to use Melusi’s brand new Suzuki SUV. Gladys knew that you wont find even a fake driver’s license between Ntonkozo and Teddy. But this is God’s work, a church function, so maybe she counted on the Lord protecting them.

But the law of the land does not care about Church errands. On the way to Church, Ntokozo decided to teach Teddy how to drive. No sooner had Teddy got behind the wheel than a police car appeared in his rear view mirror with blue lights flashing. The two boys were arrested for driving without a license and maybe God was busy with more important things, like Mam Sonto’s criminal prayer. More about that later.

Good cop bad cop

If you watch TV enough times then you are familiar with the good cop bad cop interrogation strategy. One cop pretends to be mean and uncompromising while the other plays the rescuer. But in this case it was one cop playing both roles. The booking officer played good cop by keeping Ntokozo and Teddy’s names out of the system . Instead he released them to Gladys and Zodwa… for a fee. You know, when cops ask for “drinks” but they don’t really mean drinks. He asked that they pay a fine to have Melusi’s car released from impound. Only to turn around and demand hush money.

“Pay me or else I tell your husband”

Blackmailers always want more

Zodwa and Gladys did not have the sort of money he wanted. So Gladys, who has connections from her social worker job, offered to help with the booking officer’s backlog of court cases. The corrupt cop seemed satisfied with this arrangement, but he returned to ask for more — like all blackmailers do.

 

Meanwhile the guilt of deceiving Meneer Dlamini weighed heavily on Teddy’s conscience, until he confessed to getting arrested.

But even though Melusi knew the whole truth, he played dumb as Gladys, Zodwa and Ntokozo stewed in guilt. When finally they confessed, he was not angry, which is so unlike Melusi.  When everyone was expecting Ntokozo to catch hands, Melusi was unexpectedly calm. He did however prank Zodwa, who he “fired” only to laugh as she headed upstairs to pack her bag.

 

Zodwa, Gladys, Ntokozo and Teddy did not know that the blackmailing cop had approached Melusi, expecting to milk him dry. But he had not counted on the Gomora Secondary Principal having friends in high places. Melusi made one phone call to his friend, the station commander, and the blackmailer soon realized that he had chosen the wrong mark to scam.

Sonto goes regional

 

The business of car theft is similar to the arts. You could be poking the dirt out your navel or prodding wax from your ears, completely idle. Then all of a sudden, your agent needs you to attend an audition for a new film.

Sonto and Thathi were poking at the dirt in their belly button, in a manner of speaking, when Pedro, a buyer from Mozambique ordered 25 luxury cars. Pedro wished to avoid the inconvenience of going to a car dealership. So he hired Sonto to, um, er… acquire the cars for him.

 

To get the vehicles into Mozambique, Zanele obtained fake registrations from a woman who works at the department of vehicle registration.

Sonto having only two full time employees — Lindokuhle and Zanele — needed help in fulfilling such a large order. Sdumo, Mohato’s lackey, overheard a conversation between Zanele, Lindokuhle and Thathi. The moment he told Mohato, the greedy jailbird wanted a piece of the action. At first, Sonto refused to work with him. But she realized that her team was short staffed. Mohato and Sdumo were brought in. The parties agreed to split Pedro’s R650,000 fee three ways: a portion for Thathi, a share for Sonto and a cut for Mohato.

In keeping with her Churchy name, Sonto prayed before the gang went off to steal cars. Only in the mind of a career criminal is it normal to involve God in acts of crime.

Part of the consignment was stolen straight off a car dealership. The second lot – Thathi’s brilliant idea – were obtained through con artistry. Pretending to be a car dealer, Thathi rang up owners of luxury vehicles and told them there was a market recall due to a potentially hazardous mechanical fault. The car owners were happy to hand over their vehicles. Who wants to be stuck with a faulty car, right? The other cars were stolen at fake police road blocks set up by the gang. They were still one car short. Mohato got that last car the old fashioned way; he faked a car breakdown and stole a Jeep Cherokee Grand once the Good Samaritans stopped to help.

 

Mohato gets greedy

Pedro kept his word and delivered three bags of cash to Sonto. The old lady, believing in transparency, summoned Mohato to the money counting ceremony. He got greedy and decided he would take two bags of “machankura” for himself and leave Sonto and Thathi with just one.

After pulling a gun on them, he tied the two women up and triumphantly whistled a tune as he exited the room. Outside, Mohato could not find the keys to Thathi’s car which he needed to make his getaway. By the time he returned for the car keys, where he left the women strapped to chairs, they had untied themselves. Thathi struck him over the head with an iron pipe and pointed her revolver at him. But Mohato quickly produced a pistol and aimed it at Sonto.

 

“Put your gun down or I shoot your mother”

 

After an exchange of words, Thathi shot Mohato — twice. We shall never have to hear his condescending voice ever again. His epitaph will read “He died for machankura.”

Rest in Peace Mohato.

Till next week, my pen is capped

 

Jerà

 

Gomora airs week days on Mzansi Magic at 7:30pm

 

Images from Twitter

 

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