Kgosi Gaborone Appeals For Royal Palace
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday May 21, 2018 15:15
'I have travelled to many places and Dikgosi live in palaces. It is high time we build our own as Batlokwa. Kgosi should live in a beautiful palace with royal kraals and many other cultural activities for Morafe,” Gaborone said at a Kgotla meeting on Saturday.
He found the meeting in progress as he had just returned from the Kingdom, which recently changed name from Swaziland to more apt eSwatini with President Mokgweetsi Masisi. Gaborone expressed the need for tribes to care for their Dikgosi, adding that the prevailing conditions were not enticing enough for some to stay in chieftainship.
Gaborone also told his subjects that as Bogosi, they were working with the Batlokwa Development Trust to come up with ideas that would generate income and create employment for Batlokwa.
Speaking on the agenda of the meeting, which was to discuss the draft Tlokweng Development Plan, Gaborone said there was a need for Dikgosi to have special advisors who could make plans for their subjects.
“We need to have special advisors who would be able to develop a plan for our people and the consultant would work on it and finalise it. We need to take a lead in such issues with boldness,” he said.
Gaborone said Bogosi should be treated more seriously and be made to lead in planning for the villages. Batlokwa reiterated what they said at a previous meeting that they did not want their land to be taken away from them.
The plan proposes that their masimo be taken to make way for residential plots. They said they would not allow for that to happen as they are entitled to farm just like all other Batswana.
Gaborone told them that they would call the consultants back so the Morafe could tell them their thoughts. He called on Batlokwa to attend the meetings in large numbers so that their voices may be amplified.