Tall Piet Mokoena was a very famous man in the community. As
far as people were concerned, he was a perfect gentleman. A man that was 1,88m
tall in his socks couldn’t be described as short hence the name. He was the
father of the community and kind-hearted.
For members of the African Church of Zion where he was a minister
it was a privilege to be lead by him. He was a dependable soul. Everything that
was good. He visited the elderly and sickly and prayed for them. The deceased
he buried for free, even people not from his church, especially the poor.
Yearly, in winter, he gave away blankets to hundreds of people and for
Christmas, groceries.
All these things didn’t go unnoticed. The people admired
him. But there were also some unanswered questions: where did he get all the
money? The furniture in his house was very beautiful and expensive. Even the
clothes they wore were in high fashion – and their car a BMW. The other
ministers felt uncomfortable and inferior in his presence. But everyone kept
quiet because they were benefitting from his kindness.
The life in Matwabeng carried on peacefully – until that
fatal night when the late night news on TV shook the community with the power
of a thousand thunderbolts. At six that evening the police tried to stop a red
BMW south of Bethlehem, but it speeded past. The police followed and fired
warning shots when the car still didn’t stop. When it drove even faster, the
police had to shoot at it.
Five shots later they saw the car driving off the road and
into the bushes. At closer investigation, they found the driver was dead. They
also found six bags of dagga and two firearms. Later they found that the
weapons were used in previous robberies in shops in Bethlehem, Matwabeng and
Marquard. The BMW was stolen six months before from a factory in Pretoria.
Tall Piet Mokoena was unveiled as the robber “The Mask” that
day – the man that robbed and smuggled at night and was known as a minister in
the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment