Khama Castigates Floggings, Urges Victims To Report

Staff Writer | Monday May 10, 2010 00:00

President Ian Khama has joined the chorus of condemnation of Bakgatla Kgosikgolo, Kgafela II's flogging of people carried out by his mephato and called on the victims of the floggings to come forward and report the matters to the Police.

To add salt to injury Khama added that even in the good old days dikgosi never went around whipping people. Khama made these remarks during his 35 minutes interview with Donald Seberane of Duma fm.

Khama, who draped Kgafela II with the leopard skin during the youthful Bakgatla leader's coronation three years ago, told Duma fm's Donald Seberane that he regards the Bakgatla mephato floggings as abuse or misuse of powers.

The President said: 'Anywhere in the society you will find abuse, people do abuse or misuse their powers, and one should not take that as the rule, it is the exception, the instances you quoted are the exceptions, there is no way we could allow any individual, under any guise to behave in that manner...'

Khama echoed the legal advice issued by the Attorney General, Athaliah Molokomme regarding the legal fashion of instilling discipline. He said, 'We have corporal punishment, but it follows laid down procedure under customary law, but you cannot just go willy-nilly, sending mephato around the place whipping people for this or that; that will not be tolerated and anyone who is a victim of that must come forward to the police and report it,' Khama said.

Khama's public condemnation of Kgafela, which comes hardly a week after the Minister of Local Government also condemned the tribal leader, will come as a blow to the embattled Bakgatla leader who recently found himself in all sorts of trouble after his mephato flogged two pastors before the Kgosi ordered the indefinite closure of their church, Family Of God (FOG).

The church, backed by its umbrella body, the Evangelical fellowship of Botswana (EFB), would later issue a hard-hitting statement on Kgafela and the Mochudi Police on the abuse of human rights and intolerance.

In an urgent application at the High Court the church was given the permission to go and practice freely in Mochudi without the interference of the Kgosi and his mephato.

Already a Mochudi man is suing the Bakgatla leader and the Police of millions of Pula after he was whipped for allegedly stealing royal bridles.

However, Khama says he recognises that dikgosi need to be empowered to carry out the mandate of enforcing discipline in communities.  He told Duma fm; 'We need to reinstate, restore the authority of the chiefs to be able to deal with those kind of things (disrespect, selfishness and indiscipline). That has not been done.

Khama continued; 'It is not an issue that once we assist the chiefs to get back their authority, there is going to be anything draconian, we are just saying let us get in touch with our traditions and culture because in those days when they were running, they stood well for us'.

When rejecting Bakgatla floggings, Khama told Duma fm: 'That (the flogging and whipping of people) is not what I'm envisaging when I was saying 'giving powers to dikgosi' because even in the past I would like to believe that is not the kind of thing they used to do.... we have a constitution, we have laws, and anything and everything we do has to be in that framework, when we talk about civil liberties, there is no way we are going to infringe on those.'

The Bakgatla leader once told a kgotla meeting in Mochudi that President Ian Khama and the Minister of Justice, Ramadeluka Seretse both endorse his style of instilling discipline. He even said he had sat down with the Attorney General to explain the difference between the corporal punishment as laid down in the penal code and the punishment carried out by mephato, saying both are provided in the constitution.