Kgafela wants meeting with Khama
Lerato Maleke | Friday November 14, 2014 16:08
Khama established the five-man Commission last month as part of efforts to resolve a three-year impasse with the tribe, that saw the flight of the paramount chief in 2012 amidst a slew of criminal charges related to illegal floggings within the tribe.
The commission includes Kgosi Malope Gaseitsiwe of Bangwaketse as chairperson, Kgosi Phokontsi Seeletso of Mmadinare as deputy chairperson as well as senior officials from the Ministry of Local Government and the department of Tribal Administration. However, at the meeting with Kgafela, the commission was joined by an official from the Attorney General’s Chambers.
According to highly placed sources, Kgafela met with commission members at Royal Marang Hotel in Phokeng near Rustenburg last week, where the paramount chief laid down his demands for a resolution of the impasse.
Kgafela was flanked at the meeting by his uncles, the banned deputy chief Bana Sekai and his associate, Ramono Pilane, who is currently staying with him in Rustenburg.
“He openly told the commission that he wants to meet with Khama personally and has little faith in the commission,” said one source aware of the meeting’s contents.
According to the source, one of the commissioners, Phokontsi, asked Kgafela if he would not return to Botswana, but the paramount chief outrightly dismissed the suggestion.
“He was unimpressed and said that even if the charges against him were dropped, he doesn’t have any interest of coming back home,” the source said.
Other sources at the meeting said Kgafela insisted that he was the ultimate authority on issues of bogosi within the tribe.
“He said he was the only one who could determine who was a member of the royal family or not and added that his brothers, Mmusi and Bakgatle, should not be misunderstood to represent him,” the source said.
“He also stressed that government must understand that he is different from his late father, Kgosi Linchwe II. Bogosi ke bame eseng ba ga Linchwe.”
Contacted for comment, commission chair, Kgosi Malope said the meeting with Kgafela “went very well” and was “fruitful”.
“Everything went well according to our expectations but I cannot divulge anything further until I brief Bakgatla on November 18,” he said.
The commission received a hostile reception in Mochudi last month when it was first unveiled, as tribesmen at the Kgotla openly called for a response to their petition to Khama in which they demanded the dropping of criminal charges against Kgafela.