Feuding Families Finally Bury Baitsemi
Koketso Kgoboge | Monday March 16, 2020 16:48
Baitsemi died on February 27, and traditionally she would have been buried on the weekend of the week she departed.
Initially, funeral arrangements were scheduled for her matrimonial home in Mmadinare. The process was interdicted by the courts of law after her natal family disputed the development. She was in the process of a divorce at the time of her demise. The court, therefore, ruled she be buried at her natal home.
Her husband did not attend the funeral. Some members of her matrimonial family were present at the funeral held yesterday morning. From eulogies of numerous speakers at the funeral, the ‘loving’ Baitsemi endured a devastating life.
She was described as a compassionate giver; a loving and grounded person who harvested phane during school term breaks, as God-fearing and hardworking, and a cagey character that bottled her feelings and life matters.
Israel Bontsi, his neighbour and colleague at Letsibogo Primary School where she taught had said she met Baitsemi before she got into marriage in 2008 when she arrived at the school on transfer.
Bontsi said she watched over the years as the deceased’s life changed from happiness to the sorrow that took her to the grave.
“I watched my sister at the times she was extremely happy, at the time of her marital trials and tribulations, and then I witnessed her life turn disastrous,” he said.
He added that Baitsemi and her husband embraced each other and hardly ever separated, until the time their house got out of order. He said his next-door neighbours were in constant fighting until the deceased became weak and consequently ended in a hospital bed.
Bontsi, who declared he was the everyday mediator when things went wrong next door, said after the passing of Baitsemi he anticipated trouble was simmering that would disturb the burial.
“When a team of my colleagues went to her matrimonial home where the burial was scheduled at the time of the announcement of her passing I could not go, because I knew the storm was brewing,” he said.
He added he was amongst key people who contributed to her wedding due to the brotherly and sisterly relationship he had established with the deceased.
“We enjoyed the wedding ceremony here and in Mmadinare and it is sad that today the families are so divided that others did not make it here to pay their last respects to Dineo,” he said when concluding his tributes.
Her sister Lilian Selekanyo said Baitsemi was secretive and refused to share her troubles. Having grown up with her sister who was one-year-old older, it was apparent to her that she was suffering unpleasant times that she could not describe.
“In her marriage she moved from being a beautiful sassy sister to a person I couldn’t define. She bottled a lot of troubles, and they weakened her until she departed. She took a route no one wishes to follow,” she said.
Her aunt Tirafalo Kwadiba said she was Baitsemi’s confidante. Kwadiba said she carried her matrimonial secrets that also made her life unbearable. With what transpired she said Baitsemi was too strong and tried to handle her situations. “It was extremely strenuous on my part because she confined in me. Her secrets were too heavy, and she couldn’t bear them, they ate her out. She was depressed and she did not get any counselling. She stood up last year and went to court, understanding her trials I guaranteed her my full support.”
The uncle from her matrimonial home in Mmadinare who stood briefly described her niece as a kind person.
“She was a well-groomed grounded woman that loved our family, before and until she was married. O ne a siame tota,” he briefly said.
Her husband, a son and four siblings survive Baitsemi.