Mokobong land dispute attracts DCEC?

Onalenna Kelebeile | Friday May 30, 2014 16:07

 

Councillor Joseph Molamu and his arch-enemy, Kgosi Obert Thutlwa have confirmed separately that they have been grilled by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crimes (DCEC) sleuths over ‘issues affecting’ the village. Thutlwa said DCEC officials came to him and questioned him on what he called “unprocedural acts that the councillor made the community to engage in so that they can access LIMID funding”.

“The councillor said a lot of things at a kgotla meeting and I had to stand up in the same forum to defend myself,” the Kgosi says. The two leaders are feuding over a piece of land the councillor says belongs to a community trust. The Kgosi has dismissed the councillor’s claims saying there is no trust. The councillor says DCEC officials came to him and interviewed him on the appeal he made during a recent Kgotla meeting when he accused Kgosi Thutlwa of snatching a piece of land from the community. “I am yet to hear from DCEC,” he said Tuesday.

Both men hate each other so much that they have vowed they will never reconcile. “I do not think anybody will be able to reconcile us,” Thutlwa says. Molamu accuses Thutlwa of secretly planning to turn the trust into a family affair and refusing to spearhead its registration for the community. The Botswana Congress Party (BCP) councillor says Thutlwa is launching strategies to de-campaign him so that he loses in the general elections.

Molamu says he and Kgosi never meet to discuss how to develop the village. “The sour relationship affects the village because Kgosi sabotages any programme that I spearhead. I once appealed to the area MP, Mahalapye Sub-Council chairman as well as the District Officer,” he says. Molamu says that though the community should register the plot under a trust, Thutlwa is refusing to help. But the Kgosi dismisses the councillor’s claims as baseless. “What I can say is that proper procedures were not followed when the said trust was established and even the community was not involved. I have even told him that we do not accept that trust because the community has got no ownership of it. We do not even know how, when and where its committee was elected,” he says. The chief has challenged the councillor to produce proof that he attempted to swindle the plot from the community. “I cannot accept things that are not properly done. For us to set up a trust, the community and the District Office must be involved,” he said. Thutlwa dismisses claims that he is de-campaigning the councillor.

Meanwhile, DCEC spokesperson, Lentswe Motshoganetsi has declined to confirm or deny that they are probing the two Mokobong leaders.