Gaoberekwe family advised against legal suit
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday August 28, 2023 06:00
Gaoberekwe’s corpse has been lying in a private mortuary for the past 18 months, clocking a bill of over P200,000. The local authorities have been denying the family a permit to bury their father who died on December 21, 2021 in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR). The Gaborekwe family lost court cases at the High Court and the Court of Appeal (CoA).
They wanted to bury their father Pitseng in the CKGR as per his wish. After losing at Botswana’s apex court, the family appealed for legal assistance to take the government of Botswana to an African court.
Mmegi has since learnt from the family that the African Commission would instead entertain an official complaint against the government. “Our attorneys have been helping us on the matter. I hope they are writing to the African Commission as per the advice we got. We have since been told to lodge a complaint, not a case as we had thought. What we want is for this matter to be heard fairly.
Our bill at the mortuary has not exceeded P300 thousand as other people speculate. We went to the mortuary at the end of June 2023,” the family spokesperson Smith Moeti said in an interview.
He said the family is not going to give up on the matter until they get a fair judgment. Moeti said what is still shocking them is that the government, which had an interest in the matter, is now reluctant to bury the body. He said the family cannot go against the will of the deceased since it is a taboo in their culture and they could end being cursed by their ancestors. Still, on the matter, Moeti believes that their issue was not dealt with fairly.
He continued: “The corpse is still at the mortuary and we do not know what to do.
We have not changed our decision as a family that we will not be part of any burial that happens outside the CKGR. We have since said the government is free to bury him if it wants to but that has not happened.” He said they will not rest until they get justice and felt they are being undermined because of their tribe status.
Moeti also said their father had been a resident of CKGR but moved to New Xhade due to illness and where he could be nearer to medical facilities.
The family spokesperson said the deceased did not have any home apart from CKGR. The family wants the government to allow it to bury their father in the CKGR. Gaoberekwe’s body has been lying at the Joyce Funeral Parlour in Gantsi. Late last year, the family was planning to appeal its case at the International Criminal Court of Justice but could not do so due to financial challenges.
That was hardly after the CoA dismissed their case. The CoA gave the family seven days to bury the deceased and allowed them to bury him in any place of their choice apart from the CKGR. At some point, the family claimed that it was impossible to bury the deceased within the given seven days as per the court decision but later after a family meeting, it was resolved that they would not take part in his burial.