Heroic Send-Off For Koma

By Oliver Modise
Staff Writer | Monday March 26, 2007 00:00

 

Koma's cousin Maipelo Senai narrated how she grew up with him. She said he was a humorous person with no hatred from his early days up to the time he went to school and came back to join politics. 'If we are to talk about my cousin, we will spend the whole day, because his good deeds are too many to count,' she said. 

Opposition veteran Klass Motshidisi said Koma was a man of the people who wanted to liberate masses when he first arrived from studies in 1964. 'He was a very strategic person who easily outsmarted the Special Branch at a time when they though he was distributing communist doctrine,' he said.

Patrick Van Rensburg said he met Koma for the first time through the late President Sir Seretse Khama. 'He helped us with the Swaneng project, Shashe River School and Madiba,' he said. Van Rensburg added that because of his input, Koma was later chosen to be a board member of Madiba Secondary School. 'He played a very important role in developing schools and often we both visited these schools,' he said.  

One of Koma's political protg, Lemogang Ntime narrated how they met in 1969. He described Koma as an educationalist and a philosopher who managed to write about Africa's critical problems. 'He has written a lot about Africa's woes and this is a heritage,' said Ntime.

Koma is hailed as the father of Botswana's opposition politics who helped many to cut their political teeth. Botswana Congress Party (BCP) president Gilson Saleshando talked about his country tours when he was still a Koma ally. He said that from his own personal experience, he had learnt that Koma was a man of the people.

BNF president Otsweletse Moupo described Koma as a very intelligent man who taught him that leaders must teach their followers. He added that to Koma criticism did not mean hatred. 'I remember when comrade (Maitshwarelo) Dabutha said that if all compasses were pointing east as the way to go and Koma was choosing to go west, then the compass will be wrong,' said Moupo. He asserted that for a long time Koma, was committed to unity of opposition parties but the tragedy is that most of the time efforts to close ranks failed.

Foreign Affairs Minister and Mahalapye West MP Mompati Merafe got a chance to talk about his interaction with Koma. 'Dr Koma is not the type whose name one can miss in Botswana's history books. If so then the history will be flawed,' said Merafe.

He described Koma as a national icon whose death is a loss to the country as a whole. He cited the many contributions Koma made to make the society better. 'He came up with the idea of using Setswana in Parliament and in Mahalapye his contribution has been immense. He was an educated man. We didn't buy into his political vision but we respected him and will continue to do so,' Merafe said.  The minister added that Koma's tact and leadership abilities helped sustain Botswana's democracy as he choose to oppose the ruling party peacefully especially at a time when many countries were at war with opposition parties. He said Koma was an admirable man and 'you could disagree with him but you could never stop admiring the way he found his way across issues'.