Bakgatla protest new Burial rules
Tefo Pheage | Monday March 14, 2016 15:17
While the council authorities say the new bye-law, gazetted on March 4, 2016 was passed in 2008 after extensive consultation, the tribal administration authorities, however, insist it is not the case.
Bakgatla tribal administration representative, Kgosi Segale Linchwe said he knows nothing about the cemetery bye-law. “I do not know anything about such laws. It is news to me and I don’t think anybody can make such laws without consulting Bogosi,” Segale told The Monitor.
According to the new bye-law, Bakgatla will have to apply for burial permits, an application which the council has a right to decline. A burial cannot take place unless the council has issued the permit, the new bye-law dictates.
The new regime states that diphiri (gravediggers) will be rid of in the future, and the council will be responsible for grave preparation, for a fee to the bereaved. This will dispense with the tradition whereby Diphiri, usually a team of men who the evening befor the burial, visit the graveyard by twilight to prepare the grave for the dead’s final resting. Diphiri’s significance at funerals is comparable to that of the clergy, as they are usually led and directed in customary rites by the deceased’s elders, the uncles especially.
Bakgatla, like many other tribes across Botswana, have held steadfast to this tradition for aeons. But the bye-law states that, “a person may dig a grave only after he receives authorisation from the Council Secretary and undertakes to abide by the conditions of bye-law 9, and as may be fixed from time to time by the council”.
For those who were planning to bury their loved ones in their backyards, the new law says that is a no-no area. “A person shall not bury or cause to be buried, a body in a place other than a cemetery,” the bye-law states. However, it further reads that, “without prejudice to this law, the council may in special circumstances authorise a burial in other places other than the designated cemetery”.
Moreover, the new regime states that, “every grave in a cemetery shall be allocated a number and the particulars of every burial shall be recorded in a register kept by the council secretary”.
The new bye-law further says that no person shall erect on any grave, memorial works unless with the written permission of the council secretary and such an erection should be within the dimensions provided for by the council.
The council further states it has a right to refuse with a permit to perform such and will take down or remove any memorial work violating the set law. The bye-law warns that breach of the bye-law attracts a fine not exceeding P1, 000 or in default of payment, a prisons term not exceeding six months. Council chairperson, Mpho Morolong, expressed his outrage, revealing that while the bye-law is only being gazetted now, it was passed in the previous council, under the chairmanship of Mpho Moruakgomo, and was long passed to the responsible ministry, in 2008.
But as the new chairperson, he has no choice but to own up to it. He however said it was important that proper consultation is done with the community before it is enacted. “I have been told that during then, all stakeholders were consulted,” he said.
However, Morolong said the public and all aggrieved still have a right to approach the council to raise their concerns. The Kgatleng Land Board chairperson, Peggy Gaorutwe said she was equally clueless about the new cemetery bye-law, but said they will welcomed the development nonetheless if the council has satisfied itself that it is the right thing to do. She said there is too much land misuse at the cemeteries, further expressing hope that the said bye-law will help address the matter.