A requiem for Oscar
Ryder Gabathuse | Monday November 2, 2026 06:00
As God is the giver of life and the one who takes it away, He seems to have been somewhat harsh, as I have been watching the loved ones depart just like that in numbers. There is no decent death after all, as it seems we all have our own unique ways of departing the world we live in to meet our maker. The painful reality is that God has kept the dates of our departure from this earth and knows how we are going to depart as part of his best-kept secret. It is only a handful of those who happen to know their dates of departure beforehand. It is, however, very rare and only in exceptional cases like the former Nigerian Televangelist Temitope Balogun Joshua (TB Joshua), who was able to bid his congregation farewell long before his day of departure.
It is not possible for me to list all the people closest to me whom I have lost in the past six years or so. The list is so long and naming them will sorely open healing wounds. Last week’s announcement by Prophetess Grace (Masego Thuma) was that a respectable senior brother who hailed from both Tutume and Tatisiding villages, Oteng Oscar Makhala Seemule, was no more. “No more,” I clarified as if I had not heard the Prophetess. “I mean he has departed this world of the living,” she retorted with a pulpit voice. “Seemule!” I quizzed again. Prior to the shocking news, there were no indication of any threat to the state of his health, at least that I was privy to. It hurt me so badly, as if we were meant to live forever. Of all the things the Prophetess Grace told me was that Seemule’s death was the subject of police investigations, right in his home turf. His lifeless body was found in the thickets in the proximity of his farm.
That was before she went straight into the real issue. “He was allegedly found hanging from a tree near his farm, lifeless,” she added. I was shattered to the core, as if there is a decent way of dying. We all have our own ways of meeting with our maker and we would remain unaware until the day of reckoning. The reality is that Seemule is no more. This is the man whom I watched transform into a God-loving and God-fearing character together with his family members. We met over a decade ago at The Shadow of God Ministries, where he was the chairperson of the church board whilst he was in the employ of the Directorate of Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC). Seemule did not run the church like his workplace, but he was a no-nonsense character who pleased his principals, Prophet Daniel Morupisi and his wife, Apostle Thandiwe Morupisi and possibly God himself.
The church was more like a family with its ‘tolerable flaws’ like any place of worship could be. Seemule and the church board members ensured the church widely opened its doors to all and sundry. He emphasised good governance and was so obsessed with providing the requisite checks and balances of all the processes in the church, fostering transparency. Seemule was a mediator par excellence whenever there was a need to bring peace to deserving circumstances. He was so loving and a people's person. Seemule was the face of the church, with Prophet Morupisi often using the board chairperson’s stature to reflect on the seriousness of the Shadow of God International Ministries’ state of growth and preparedness to serve the people, rich or poor.
Besides meeting at the church, we had also served together at the Botswana Police Service (BPS) where I was stationed at the Police headquarters while the deceased worked for the Serious Crimes Squad. Seemule was regarded as one of the revered crack detectives at the unit that investigated organised crime and fraud issues. He served under the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) head, Tymon Katlholo, before he joined the DCEC, where he rose through the ranks to the level of Assistant Director before he exited upon retirement. From outside, Seemule looked innocent and just ordinary, not until he wore his investigative hat, then the real creature in him stood out. He was meant for investigation and investigation was meant for him.
Seemule was more like a chameleon, simply adapting to the environment he was in. He took his chances very well and the chances in return took him. His name and signature are found in many case dockets where he had completed investigations of many cases that had sent men and women who had broken the law to jail. Seemule abhorred criminality in its many forms and he was determined to take his detective job to the grave. So, he did. One of the cases that he and others investigated and finally brought before court recently relates to a high-profile case involving former Ghanzi North Member of Parliament John Thiite, businessman Nicholas Zakhem and others. The accused were recently dragged before court facing corruption charges over P272 million infrastructure development projects at Tutume.
This is a case that commenced in 2018 and had dragged on for almost eight years before it was taken to court, despite the fact that investigations had long concluded. Seemule’s death follows the passing of former Central District Council (CDC) principal roads engineer, Setlhomo Tlhagopi, who passed on in 2021. In May 2018, the late Tlhagopi was nabbed and detained by the DCEC as part of an investigation into corruption and misconduct within the CDC’s department. Besides his national duty at the BPS, the DCEC and his role in the church, Seemule was a family man who is survived by his wife, three children, and grandchildren. He also took a keen interest in farming like any ordinary Motswana man.
Generally, the Tutume-born Seemule was jolly, humble and incessantly cracked jokes that left people around him in stitches of laughter, even at church. He loved telling a popular story about one of the church board members who had found a new boyfriend after a long spell of dryness. Hell would later break loose when this woman, a teacher by profession, 'pounced' on her new catch only to turn the gentleman who was a Council Secretary off for good, to this day. It was perhaps, how Seemule said it that it left people eating out of his palms with the alleged broken Setswana: 'Ha u ka ki wa ntulela hela hela jalo (You can't just pounce on me like that).' Seemule had such tingling moments in between solemn moments. Like Apostle Paul has written in the book of 2 Timothy 4:7, you have fought the good fight and you have finished the race and kept the faith. May your soul rest in eternal peace.