Limpho Sello
THE Democratic Congress (DC) candidate for Tele constituency in Quthing, Mahapa Mothepu has dismissed social media reports implicating him in the attempted ritual murder of twin students at Masitise High School.
The claims have been doing the rounds on social media in the aftermath of the recent strike by Masitise High School students where they damaged classrooms, protesting that they were no longer felt safe at the school following several incidences of people knocking at girls’ residences.
There were claims that Mr Mothepu, a former mathematics teacher at the school was involved in those attempts to break in to kill the twins as part of rituals to ensure his success in Saturday’s snap elections.
Mr Mothepu recently told the Sunday Express that the claims linking him to the abductions for ritual purposes were was just propaganda aimed as defaming him and the DC.
Mr Mothepu said he was a Christian who could not be associated with such practices.
“I want to tell you that I do not even know the twins that are being talked about and there is no way that I could have been after them,” Mr Mothepu said.
“This is very sad to see this trending on Facebook that I’m the cause of the strike and people putting my picture where I’m in my DC attire.
“I wonder why they chose those pictures yet there are many pictures of me on my Facebook page where I’m not wearing political attire,” Mr Mothepu said.
“This is just propaganda to defame me by people using fake Facebook accounts. If they suspect me why didn’t they report the matter to the police instead of spreading this on social networks,” Mr Mothepu asked.
Mr Mothepu said although he had long resigned from his post as a teacher, he still stayed on the school premises with the permission of the school principal.
He said he heard gunshots last Sunday evening and they were fired “by the police after the students went violent and damaged classrooms”.
“We woke up the next morning and we were told the students went on strike because they were not taken seriously by the principal who had not attended to complaints about their safety for a long time.
“The other issue was that they were not satisfied with the meals. I never had anything about them having an issue with me. I learnt about that on social media,” Mr Mothepu said.