Khama Meeting Under Stringent Conditions
Koketso Kgoboge | Monday May 27, 2019 13:17
He told the massively-attended weekend meeting held at the Serowe showgrounds that the supporters of Khama should know that they were granted permission under stringent conditions.
His message was for all and sundry to tread carefully in the midst of restrictions imposed by the police.
Although he could not elaborate further, the ever cheerful Mojakgomo was worried and a bit disappointed as words seemed difficult to come out of his mouth to easily express himself.
This is the man who has been conducting meetings held by Khama and Serowe South legislator Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi. Until late last year, Venson-Moitoi was a senior Cabinet fellow before the current regime axed her for challenging President Mokgweetsi Masisi for the party presidency.
Mojakgomo is a retired senior police officer who is also a trusted ally of both Khama and Venson-Moitoi. He could only go as far as hinting that people should not attack each other without specifying, which is uncharacteristic of him.
Perhaps, that was a quick sign that the meeting was indeed held under very strict conditions.
He could only then afford to shake his head briefly before he continued with his address.
Those who picked up on this development about Mojakgomo, who is favoured with an athletic structure, could see it from his body language that something was amiss.
He could not say it. Just recently, a scheduled meeting for Venson-Moitoi to brief her constituents about the recent Kang elective congress where she was supposed to challenge for the BDP presidency before she dropped out of the race was cancelled at the 11th hour.
Possibly Mojakgomo’s experience was aggravated by the recent cancelled booking at the Lady Khama Hall that saw their meeting failing unexpectedly.
“Yesterday, we struggled to secure this place for our meeting,” he said to a loud murmur of disapproval from the masses.
The weekend meeting, unlike the first one, was graced by the presence of the police who recorded the proceedings of the meeting targeting Bangwato of the vast GammaNgwato territory.
Khama would later in his address of wider issues, harp on the subject of the permit to address the weekend meeting. “It was difficult for us to secure a permit for our meeting.
It was difficult,” Khama said repeatedly obviously seeking the sympathy of his subjects.
On the other side, Khama told the meeting that since he is a Kgosikgolo of GammaNgwato, he could have chosen to call a kgotla meeting or conduct the meeting at his house without seeking anyone’s permit after all.
He chose not to be like them, as he knows after all it is just a practice not to address political matters at the kgotla. To him, he respects the kgotla as a traditional place and what it stands for.
Khama insisted that the meeting be held at the Serowe showgrounds because he knew that issues discussed will border on politics and would not be suitable for the village main kgotla.
Had they refused with the permit, Khama told the tribe that there was going to be an unspecified problem and in the vernacular, he had said: “Ga ba ka bo ba ganne re kopana, ga re itse go ta nna le mathata”.