BCP SG denies Okavango Delta land allocation
Innocent Selatlhwa | Tuesday April 12, 2022 06:00
The reports state that Kekgonegile will soon develop the land into a safari lodge. Reacting to the reports, the MP said the land talked about is a tshimo (field) situated at Xhoahatshao about 15 kilometres from Gumare village and five kilometres from Tubu village. “It is not in the Okavango Delta and I do not have a plot in the delta,” he said.
He explained that the 1,000-hectare field belonged to his late mother, Balehe Gagosi and was passed down to him as an inheritance plot by Gumare Sub Land Board in 2021 having done the transfer of ownership in 2012. “This is just deliberate defamation propaganda intended by political opponents due to Bophirima ward issues and the BCP press conference I did. The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) was not involved and I do not have any relationship with BDP in whatever form,” Kekgonegile said.
Explaining the history of the field, the BCP top man said it was first owned by his grandfather, Mothibi Kelaotswe and was inherited by his daughter, the MP’s mother, upon his death in 1975. Kekgonegile’s mother died in 1992 and he applied for transfer of ownership in 2012 but was allocated the field in 2021. “The plot must be around 1,000 hectares but was originally around 2,000 hectares. It has been subdivided within the family.” He said the reports were aimed at discrediting him and BCP in general.
He did not want to disclose who his detractors are as they chose to be faceless. The BCP and Botswana National Front, coalition partners in the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), have been at each other’s throats for quite some time. The two parties are fighting over governance issues within the coalition movement. What broke the camel’s back was the decision of the BCP to contest Bophirima ward by-election in the Gaborone Bonnington South constituency against the UDC.