Tsabong royals square off in chieftaincy row

Zolani Kraai | Friday April 4, 2014 14:31

A near-war of words erupted in Khuis, Kgalagadi South district recently during a cultural day festival where Kgosi Toto took to the podium to lambast his subordinate Kgosi Lorekang.

In what was supposed to be his closing remarks at the event, Toto firstly recited a poem for himself, a sign that the gathering picked up as a display of his displeasure with how Lorekang handled protocol on the history of the Batlharo.

Toto accused Lorekang of not clearly stating how the Toto royal family came to rule in Tsabong.

Toto said though history is clear as to how the Batlharo migrated to Botswana in their different groups, it should be noted that the Toto family is also pivotal in sustaining the Batlharo chieftaincy.

“You started well by explaining the migration of Batlharo from the union in South Africa, but then you decided to mislead people by not narrating more on how the Toto family came to rule in Tsabong,” Toto charged.

During the cultural celebration, Toto became furious after realising Lorekang had omitted to narrate how the other group of Batlharo, the Toto family in Kgalagadi South, came to settle there from South Africa.

Lorekang had told the gathering that Kgosi Motlhanke I led Batlharo who currently reside in Kgalagadi South, mainly in Khuis, Bogogobo, Kolonkwaneng and Middlepits.

He further went on to state that they flew from the Boers in the then Union in South Africa in the 1700s. During his narration, Lorekang apparently did not realise that some members of the Toto royal family, including Kgosi Toto himself and other chiefs, were angered by his alleged historical omissions.

“Lorekang only narrated about the Bailelwang, Tumaeletse and Lorekang royalty hierarchy and to all of us in the Toto family it is not an excuse to omit the role that we played with respect to the Batlharo chieftaincy in this district,” said Toto.

“What Kgosi Lorekang said is an embarrassment and how dare he misleads the tribe on the chieftaincy of the Batlharo as a whole?” he said.

In a telephone interview with Mmegi later, Lorekang stuck by most of his version of history, although he conceded that the Toto royal family are rightfully chiefs in South Africa, “but not in Tsabong”.