Borehole feud between aunt and nephew lands in court

GALE NGAKANE
Correspondent | Friday November 25, 2011 00:00

In the court battle the last witness was cross-examined on Wednesday by lawyers of both the plaintiff and defendant in a case that has been in the courts since Monday.

Acting for the nephew, Botsile Osupile (plainfitt) is Gabriel Komboni, while the aunt, Nkhabe Osupile is represented by David Ditiro of Ditiro and Jani Legal Practitioners assisted by Tshekiso Tshekiso of the same law firm.

When the last witness, 73-year-old Kesotlegile Ramolemana, an overseer of land that includes Rangaletsang in the Serowe area, vacated the witness box, Justice Solomon could be heard pleading with both lawyers not to compile theses as she is not a scholarly type. Komboni said his submission would be ready to be filed by December 9, while Ditiro and Tshekiso said they would bring theirs (submissions) on January 14 next year. So far five witnesses have been called, three for the defence and two for the plaintiff.

The judge said she would give her ruling 'sometime next year' after the filing of the submissions by the respective legal representatives. The last witness, Ramolemana was taken to task by Komboni as to why a 16-year-old (his age when the borehole was allocated), had to be called as a witness in the allocation of a borehole.

Firstly, he confirmed that his grandfather Ramolemana Gaokgorwe allocated a plot to Nthepa Osupile, where the borehole is located.

The borehole is at Mmaditlhware in a farming area called Rangaletsang. The borehole was the second choice for Nthepa after the first plot at Boitapoloso did not produce water, according to evidence from Ramolemana.

Ramolemana said in 1954, he was present when Nthepa came all the way from Paje to Serowe to plead with Ramolemana's grandfather (Gaokgorwe) that she had been thirsty for a long time and she needed a place where she could sink a borehole to water her domestic animals.

But Ramolemana said before the plot was allocated, the old man told Nthepa that he was going to consult Mokaleng in Matsiloje about his eyes, which were troubling him. He (the grandfather) would on his return allocate her the plot for the borehole. The septuagenarian said by the time his grandfather returned from Matsiloje, he was working as a shepherd for a white man by the name of Solo Tina in Shashe.

'While I was there (in Shashe) I heard that the old man has passed to the cattle post for his rendezvous with Nthepa. I then followed them to the cattlepost,' said Ramolemana.

After Ramolemana had been cross examined by Ditiro, it was Komboni's turn. He started off by stating that Ramolemana, 16 years of age at that time, was too young to be involved in discussions involving adults.

Also, Komboni wondered how Ramolemana could have been working as a shepherd for a whiteman (Solo Tina) far away in Shashe at the tender age of 14. This was after Ramolemana had said he started working for Tina in 1952 when he was 14 years old.

Komboni also disputed Ramolemana's assertion that there was no one at Rangaletsang when Nthepa was allocated the borehole. Komboni put it to Ramolemana that Botsile Osupile was already at the plot.

Asked by Komboni if he owned the land at Rangaletsang, Ramolemana responded in the affirmative, but Komboni countered that by saying even in those old days no one owned the land as it was under the jurisdiction of the chiefs.

'Your role then was to administer the land, not own it. Even today, no one owns the land but government through Land boards,' argued Komboni.

But Ramolemana maintained that he owned the land and that the landboards cannot allocate 'his' land  to anyone before he has appended his signature.

Ramolemana said Nkhabe's cattle post was at Bollatlhaga, before she made the request for the plot at Mmaditlhware, which has a borehole. The gallery was filled to capacity with relatives of the two families, mostly grey haired men and women who had been ferried from Serowe to testify in the case.