Kgosi Kgafela must respect human rights

| Tuesday April 20, 2010 00:00

The royal family has had a spat with a church over the church's service. A delegation from Kgosi Kgafela reportedly shutdown the Family of God church indefinitely on Sunday.

Two pastors of the church were also whipped two weeks ago. The details coming out of Kgatleng indicate that the closing down of the church had everything to do with the differences between the royal family and the church leadership.

Both sides are giving somewhat contradictory statements of what really transpired. The bottom line to all of this is that, as usual, people have been whipped in questionable circumstances.

What this new episode once again proves is that the royal family seems to have let elements of unlawfulness guide its methods of instilling discipline in the area.

According to the law, whipping is not the first course of action to be taken, however, groups of  the  so-called regiments, some of whom are nothing but hooligans abusing the authority and name of the chief, to met out punishments instead of solving a problem in all its complexity.

The whipping of church leaders serves no long-term purpose and, in fact, it puts the chief and the royal house in a very bad light. The whipping of young theatre artists did the same.

In terms of goodwill, and the chief needs some, it does not help for the chief to be seen to be ruling by using excitable proxies. It serves the chief no purpose at all for reports to come out of Mochudi showing the chief as having sanctioned the whipping of pastors. It does not matter what the pastors did really.

The chief should not come across as largely prepared to disregard not just the established procedures of dealing with differences in his village but even more interested in disrespecting some cherished institutions as the church.

The chief could have easily taken his differences with the church to another body, say the organisation of churches to deal with the matter.

By taking the matter to a higher body, the chief would have shown mature leadership indeed. But of course it would seem the chief's foot soldiers, with or without his sanction, preferred a much more adventurous option.

It is also important for the chief to know that if things continue in this manner, crimes will soon be committed in his name.

He should refrain from being seen to be sanctioning the disregard for justice. Tread carefully Sedibelo. Gongwe wena o tlaa re batho ba a go rata kana ba go logela lemena.

                                                                                Today's thought

                                                   'Royalty consists not in vain pomp, but in great virtues'

                                                           - Agesilaus (Spartan King, 444 BC-360 BC)