The dust not yet settled
Onalenna Kelebeile | Friday August 7, 2015 16:06
The wrangle over the naming of the village dates as far back as 1979 when residents found themselves bitterly divided between Lesenepole and Matolwane.
While those in favour of Lesenepole as the name of their village are still in a celebratory mood over their victory, the losers are seeking legal counsel on the matter.
They strongly feel that Matolwane is the legitimate name for their village and not Lesenepole.
Tensions in the sleepy village are high as those in support of naming the village Matolwane are worried their resistance could threaten their safety.
While joy is written on the faces of those who voted for the Lesenepole name, the opposite characterises those who favoured Matolwane and were seemingly not keen to discuss the turn of events in the village.
Equally worried by the results of the elections is Moremi Headman of Arbitration, Ikalafeng Senwedi, who refused to comment on the way forward. Senwedi is currently in charge of the main village kgotla, as it has no Headman of Records as a result of the wrangle.
The secret ballot elections that were held last Saturday resulted in Lesenepole trouncing Matolwane by 1,278 votes against 504.
Lesenepole headman of records, Kgosiemang Kebuamotse said he was overjoyed that the elections were free and fair.
However, he said the victory of Lesenepole over its Matolwane counterpart would likely divide the village further. He said that supporters of Matolwane were reportedly preparing to protest the outcome in court, but they have not yet received any official notification of intention to sue.
“As per the election outcome, we are winners. Once the dust settles in the village, we will obviously host a victory celebration in which we will invite neighbouring villages to witness a historical end to the dispute that gripped the village for over 20 years,” he said.
Kebuamotse said the election process was long overdue as the initial ruling was made in 2006 by the late former high court judge Moatlhodi Marumo, whose ruling Matolwane appealed.
“We allowed them time for their arguments to be heard, but their process prolonged until we also approached the court to request implementation of the ruling,” he said.
Kebuamotse added that they waited for seven years before deciding to go to court.
He said the victory is undisputable and added that the courts are available to hear any complaints.
He is optimistic that there will be progress in developments in the village because the differences had stalled all projects that were earmarked for the village.
He cited the tarring of the road that connects the village to Maunatlala, as well as a cluster fence and a bridge that was to be used to connect the village to an old cemetery.
“We are now convinced that the village will have a duly appointed headman of records,” he said.
He added that following the death of Kgosi Mokgobelelo, the village was asked to identify someone from the four wards to hold the fort, but Lesenepole/Matolwane residents did not agree on the name.
“Later on we were informed that Kgosi Senwedi has been endorsed from Serowe. We lodged a complaint with the Bamangwato Tribal Authority as Lesenepole. Kgosi David Mathibe came to address us on the issue, but we still did not agree.
To us Kgosi Senwedi is illegitimately acting at the main kgotla and he is not the rightful Kgosi that is why our cases are tried by a headman of records either from Maunatlala or Tamasane,” he added.
Matolwane representative Bashime Dintwe said elections were held as planned.
“The court ruling did not sit well with us. We have got no intention to challenge this in court, but we are exploring legal options on how we can address this matter,” he said.
He added that the elections had irregularities as some people who voted in favour of Lesenepole were illegitimately registered in the voters’ roll.
“Lesenepole residents have long called for these elections, while we on the other hand did not see the need to mobilise people for support because we do not know of a scenario where a village name was decided on votes instead of dialogue. I wonder how government could allow this to happen,” he said.
He emphasised that they do not believe that a village can be built on votes. He said his team met with the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Slumber Tsogwane to inform him of their intention to allow Lesenepole people to be given their name as a village. He said that they told Tsogwane that they could have the name without the electoral process as they had no intention in participating in the voting.
“He advised us that the law compels us to participate in the elections,” he said. During a previous interview Senwedi indicated that the issue of elections would not solve anything because another party can protest. He made clear his wish that the village could be divided into two so that Lesenepole and Matolwane became two separate communities.
He said they are yet to see how the minister will handle the issue of a headman of records. He offered that the logical position would be to have two headmen from Matolwane and Lesenepole, where they would interchange the position on agreed intervals.