Lerato Matheka
MASERU — Young and aspiring film-maker Mohono Mohono is lucky to be alive after unknown assailants attacked him in the middle of the night at his home on March 28.
Mohono, 26, was sleeping at his family’s house in Mabote — a village on the outskirts of Maseru — when two men broke into his bedroom armed with a gun and a knife.
Before he could shout for help, the assailants stabbed him on the head and chest.
Their motive is not yet known.
After stabbing him, the assailants left without taking anything from the house or the tuckshop just next Mohono’s bedroom.
Mohono is best known for the short film Cast Away which was nominated for the Africa in Motion film awards in 2007.
The film was re-shot this year and is expected to be re-released soon.
Mohono told Xpress People he believed the assailants wanted to kill him.
“I believe these people were sent to kill me because they didn’t steal anything,” he said in an interview on Friday.
“They just came for me and fled this place the minute they thought I was hurt badly.
“I mean I have a business (tuckshop) which I think they could have targeted but they came straight to my room.”
Mohono said he heard his attackers whispering before they entered his room.
“I heard noises of people whispering near my room,” he said. “They then broke into my room armed.”
“Before I could shout for help they started searching for me on the bed next to the door but I emerged from the other bed,” he said.
“It seemed I scared them so they attacked. I tried fighting for my life but they stabbed me on my forehead and on the left side of my chest.”
After the assailants left, Mohono said he sought help from his mother who was sleeping in the main house.
Mohono’s bedroom is detached from the main house, with the tuckshop in between.
“My room is separated from the main house where my mother was sleeping so she didn’t hear the noise,” he said.
“I was weak but I managed to make my way to the house and my mother helped to get me to hospital where I was admitted the same night.”
Mohono was sutured four times on the head and eight times on the chest.
He reported the attack at Mabote Police Station but he was told to submit a medical form before a case could be opened.He said he planned to submit the medical form tomorrow after seeing a doctor on Friday.
His mother, Makeneuoe Mohono, said was shocked by the attack.
She said she now feared for her son’s life and hoped the police would bring the assailants to book.
“I just don’t understand how a human being would want to hurt another,” she told Xpress People.
“If these men had any problems with Mohono, at least they could have confronted him and talked it over, not to hurt him.”
Mohono and his team were last month re-shooting Cast Away in the hope of getting the short film international recognition.
The storyline, according to Mohono, is about a young and talented but poor musician desperate to get into the recording studio.
He said in order to raise the required recording fees, the budding musician had to steal diamonds from local dealers.
The muso, however, later returned the loot to the dealers because his conscience would not allow him to sell those diamonds.
He heads Supreme Performing Arts Theatre.
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