Funeral turns into court session
Mpho Mokwape | Monday August 17, 2015 12:34
The corpse, instead of going to the cemetery, returned to the morgue pending a High Court decision on who had the right to bury Tshoswane, 58.
The legal battle was led by some of Tshoswane’s 15 children with four different mothers, who wanted to bury their father in Letlhakeng, instead of Gaborone. As a result, the High Court ordered that Tshoswane’s corpse be returned to the mortuary pending the outcome of the court case. Leading the group that wanted the Tshoswane to be buried in Letlhakeng are Richard Riem and Kgalalelo Masuku, who brought a High Court order to Gaborone West Phase Two where funeral arrangements were taking place at the home of Tshoswane’s sister, for the corpse to return to the mortuary.
The applicants had to bear the cost of the extended stay of Tshoswane’s body in the mortuary.
Later that day, Tshoswane’s 81-year-old mother told the High Court: “I am not sure who some of the children are and I cannot remember their names.”
Mariam Tshoswane had to testify why she had the right to bury her son, thus testifying against her grand children.
“My son was not married and he had dinyatsi whom he has children with but some I can’t remember their names,” she said. “I do not understand why they have brought me here today instead of letting me bury my son.”
She said she had the right to bury her son because he was not married.
She added: “I have no place of stay in Letlhakeng. I stay in Molepolole but the decision to bury him here was that we agreed that, in Molepolole we did not have enough resources there so we opted for Gaborone.”
She said Tshoswane’s children had agreed to bury their father in Gaborone but changed their minds on Wednesday, complaining that they were not involved in the funeral arrangements.
“That is where the chaos started and everyday they would come and cause common nuisance until they served us with the papers in the wee hours of the burial,”she said.However one of the deceased’s children, Kgalalelo said they wanted their father to be - buried where they desired.
Quizzed why they waited until the last minute, Masuku said they were never taken seriously and often called ‘bana ba dinyatsi’ whenever they offered suggestions.
Masuku said they asked someone in Letlhakeng to host a funeral.