Mpatane Ward wants out of Chadibe

GALE NGAKANE
Correspondent | Thursday April 22, 2010 00:00

The residents, otherwise known as Shombochena, are up in arms against the village authorities and say they have had enough of being treated as imbeciles.

They voiced their concerns to Sub-tribal authority, Itekeng Mathangwane in the presence of Chadibe headman, Aaron Boy Nyambe at a meeting on Tuesday.  Their grievances range from having a headman installed in their ward without their knowledge, while a land overseer at the ward was dismissed without their consent.

'The residents also said unlike those from other wards they were not accorded certain services. For instance, they said they are not hired for drought relief (namola leuba) projects as is the case with residents of other wards,' said Mathangwane, who is the second in command of local authority after Ramosinyi Radipitse of Tonota in the Tonota Sub District. While he is expected to give feedback to other local authorities, notably, Radipitse and the District Commissioner, on the matter, he could not say when he will meet them. Nyambe who refused to comment on the issue referred all questions to Mathangwane.

'As for me, really, I was just there to hear what they were saying,' he said. However, Mathangwane said from time to time he had to ask Nyambe to field questions from the fed-up residents.

Mpatane Ward was in the news last week when a meeting convened by the assistant district commissioner the previous Tuesday, failed to resolve a long-standing dispute over which authority should be in charge of the ward.

The meeting attended by headmen from the three villages, Mathangwane, Nyambe and Israel Molema of Borolong and chaired by the Assistant District Commissioner, Precious Maoto is to be convened again next Friday.