Kgamane calls for patience in Sebina chieftainship
Pini Bothoko | Friday February 24, 2017 16:06
Last year Sebina residents expressed a deep desire to exit the Ngwato hegemony and chart their own path. The villagers have long asked to have a kgotla of their own with a flag but their pleas seem to have fallen on deaf ears.
The current kgotla with a flag in Sebina village, BB1 Kgotla belongs to the Bangwato from Serowe. It is said the Bangwato built BB1 Kgotla decades ago before the country gained independence as their resting place on their way from Serowe to Nswazwi during their skirmishes with the Bakalanga ba-ka-Nswazwi.
In an interview with Mmegi, Kgamane pleaded for the residents’ patience whilst they address the matter. “I am aware that residents of Sebina are not happy that they do not have their own Kgotla with a flag. In the past they have written so many letters to my office expressing their pleas even before the death of Kgosi Kgakanyane Sebina. This is one bogosi issue that we are currently addressing and residents of Sebina should be patient with us,” Kgamane said. He said they cannot temper with the laws or structures that are currently in place.
“This is a sensitive issue that should be discussed in a calm manner, following proper channels because its decision will affect the country’s governance. There are some villages with similar complaints hence the decision taken will not affect the Sebina people only but other villages with a similar problem,” Kgamane said.
Last December, residents of Sebina had a meeting to discuss the matter in a bid to address the issue. According to Shathani Kgakanyane the headman of Sebina ward, residents are not pleased because unlike other villages in Botswana they do not have their own kgotla with a flag.
He said they wrote many letters to Serowe in a bid to have their own kgotla but to date they have not received any response, something he said worries the residents because it appears Bangwato do not take them nor this matter seriously. She said that they are currently using BB1 Kgotla that belongs to the eight villages of Marobela, Nshakazhogwe, Marapong, Kombani and Sebina, naming it Ma-nsha-ma-ko-se (Manshamakose), which represents the first vowelled letters of each village. Kgakanyane said they do not have a problem with the chieftainship of BB1 being shared on a rotational basis, what they want is to have a kgotla with a flag and a headman of records like other Manshamakose villages.
He said their private matters are discussed in front of Manshamakose chiefs. Despite that they are currently addressing the matter, in the past Kgosi Kgamane told Mmegi that there is no how a village can have two kgotlas with flags and advised Sebina residents to accept BB1 as their main kgotla.