Nyalala endorsers speak against Kgafela
Monkagedi Gaothobogwe | Tuesday October 11, 2022 06:00
It was a grand occasion to celebrate Heritage Day, an annual celebration in SA, where various South African nations, under their traditional leadership gather to commemorate their culture.
Kgosi Nyalala made it a spectacular occasion for his people, as Bakgatla came in droves from all corners of his tribal groupings and beyond. Bakgatla ba Moruleng territory itself is made up of 34 villages.
The entrance by Nyalala and his mohumagadi was a colourful statement on its own, as he was flanked by an age regiment singing his praises, while he donned the symbolic leopard skin, the mark of a king or royal.
Bakgatla ba Moruleng used this occasion to assert themselves and speak with one voice against Kgafela II and his decade-long attempts to rule in Moruleng. Speaker after speaker stressed that the Moruleng nation in South Africa is independent of Mochudi since these are two nations in two different jurisdictions, Botswana and South Africa, each with its own laws, independent of the other.
In Princess Kudule’s words, Bakgatla splitting into independent groupings had been a recurring phenomenon, as the current Moruleng tribe also broke away from Ba Mosetlha, who also have different independent Bakgatla tribes in South Africa, each with its own recognised leadership and tribal territory. Kudule says within South Africa some Bakgatla offshoots went on to become a new nation altogether, such as the Bapedi.
In the same vein, the Moruleng tribe split into two when a splinter group decided to establish itself in Botswana. Princess Kudule declared Nyalala the undisputed kgosi of the Moruleng nation. Another Moruleng royal family official, Morena Thale, who is also a youth leader, directed his vile towards Kgafela II as he declared his people free from what he described as Mochudi colonialism as attempted by Kgafela II.
Perhaps the most significant endorsement of Nyalala as Kgosi in Moruleng was the dominant visibility of the top leadership of South Africa’s traditional leadership authority, Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (CONTRALESA), represented by its president, Kgosi Mokwena III of Ramapulane, Mpumalanga, who also lashed at Kgafela II’s antics in his speech. Mokwena, a well-known African National Congress (ANC) cadre and former MP, proudly announced that the ANC government is fast-tracking a constitutional amendment proposed by CONTRALESA that would ensure that outside forces do not destabilise South African traditional leadership settings as it happened in Moruleng. Interestingly, Nyalala is himself the deputy president of CONTRALESA. Nyalala is not only in charge of the tribal ceremonies. The purse, the kgotla, and the offices are all in his total control, meaning that all attempts by Kgafela to remove Nyalala and install his protege at Moruleng have failed.
Speaking at his Moruleng office, Nyalala told Mmegi that there have never been any changes in his office since the long-running court cases Kgafela II launched. Nyalala admits that a Kgafela protégé Rammono was given recognition by a lower court, a decision Nyalala and his Moruleng have since appealed. “Government couldn’t give him our offices; these are not government-built offices, these offices were built by morale, and morafe have held onto their assets; the same story with our kgotla or museum premises, the tribe have held onto them, and government could not do anything about it when the tribe took this stance.
Nyalala says even the mineral concessions, and the bank accounts belong to his morafe, and not the government, and so Kgafela or his protege could not lay their hands on the assets. “But they are free to pay him, or give him a car as they do with other leaders that they control; here, we are fully independent. There is nothing that we get from government that can be used to frustrate us; even all the infrastructure in Moruleng, we built it ourselves, from the roads, the shopping mall, the Moruleng stadium, sewerage infrastructure, water, you name it, we designed and built it all, on our own." Nyalala says he remains relaxed: “ Even though we are in control, we are determined to fight the recognition of Kgafela’s protege, so that it becomes clear to all that Moruleng has only one Kgosi appointed under the Constitution of South Africa. We had wanted to expedite the appeal but they told us it cannot be an urgent matter, so we filed the appeal the normal route and it is awaiting its turn.
Nyalala blames certain political and business interests for the long-running saga, saying some interests groups had hoped to gain but Nyalala sees signs that the backers are beginning to realise that power lies with the people. Nyalala says it is now business as usual as he continues to work hard to find solutions to challenges besieging his people as well as the wider rural South Africa, as both Kgosi of Moruleng and deputy president of CONTRALESA. He says from next year two universities will be set up in Moruleng to give people in the region proximity to tertiary education. He also has a strategic plan for Internet connectivity for all 34 villages, in partnership with a mobile phone technology company in SA. Nyalala says the success of the connectivity programme in Kgatleng will be used to roll out connectivity to the rest of the rural communities in SA, a strategic plan he says has ownership of the tribes through CONTRALESA.