Special Kweneng Land Board meeting to resolve cemetery dispute
Sharon Mathala | Tuesday July 15, 2014 13:00
The meeting to discuss the feud between Clement Kgosiemang and residents of Magokotswane in Molepolole is expected to be a tense affair. It comes after a media frenzy caused by the villagers demand for the return of the cemetery.
The cemetery was allocated despite the fact that two people, including a former headman, were already buried on it. Last December, a magistrate ordered the Land Board to hold discussions with Kgosiemang to resolve the matter within two months. The court barred any burials from taking place on the land in the interim.
Speaking at a Kgotla meeting recently, Kweneng Land Board chair, Moemedi Babitseng said Kgosiemang would be subpoenaed to attend a resolution meeting. He said the old Land Board was responsible for the state of affairs but pledged that the matter will be addressed accordingly.
“We were supposed to have a meeting with Kgosiemang on June 23 but this failed to happen because he did not show up. We will resolve this matter amicably,” he explained.
Land Board officials said yesterday that today’s meeting would be held behind closed doors with both parties expected to argue their case.
The villagers have said their former cemetery in Masu-a-Ditshwene is full and the allocation of the current graveyard to Kgosiemang will inconvenience them further.
At a heated Kgotla meeting recently, villagers told President Ian Khama how the previous Land Board allocated Kgosiemang their cemetery without their knowledge.
They said they had run out of options as the farmer has fenced the plot with the Land Board failing to explain how and why the allocation was done.