Simon's lone battle

LAWRENCE SERETSE
Correspondent | Wednesday May 1, 2013 00:00

He repeats the threat four times over the phone, with conviction.The young man, Nhlanhla Simon, introduces himself as chief of the Amandebele of Botswana. Between the 5th and 10th December 2012, Mmegi received three copies of letters sent by Simon to the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Peter Siele, Lebonaamang Mokalake, the current Minister of Lands and Housing and Kgosi Thabo Masunga III.

Through the correspondence, the University of Botswana dropout demanded the government restore the North East District from Bakalanga to the Amandebele by February 1, 2013. 

Simon wrote to Mokalake ordering him to stop allocating land in the district, as the land does not belong to Botswana. Simon claimed that the land is Matabeleland's and warned that if land allocations do not stop, they will secede from Botswana.

For his part, Kgosi Masunga, who represents the North East in the House of Chiefs, said some of the concerns are beyond his jurisdiction.

Nonetheless, he disputed the young man's asssertion that on the day of his (Masunga) uncle's inaugural ceremony as acting chief, former President Festus Mogae and Btv were present.

'That was in 1991. At the time, Mogae was not yet president and despite that, under what capacity would he have said that the chieftaincy belonged to the Amandebele?' Masunga argued.

'I was five years old at the time, but I know that Btv was not there because the station had not yet been established at the time. The only recorded reference to the day was in the Daily News, and only Kgosi Linchwe was there of all the people mentioned,' Kgosi Masunga said.

He said as a young leader, he is bound to have enemies.

'Where have they been all along?' he said.

In an interview, Simon purported that Tati Company and the Botswana government stole the land from the Amandebele of Botswana in 1911. He said that the Tati Company was given mining rights on the land between Shashe River and Ramokgwebane River in the year 1888 by the Amandebele of Lobengula for a 25 year term (until 1913). He said that after the death of Ndebele elders during a war with the British South Africa Company, Tati Company seized the opportunity and stole the land.

The self-acclaimed Ndebele chief said he considers any development in the North East after 1888 as illegal and unfounded as it was undertaken without consulting his people.

'At the moment we can allow developments such as the road linking Tonota and Francistown,' Simon said.

For his part, Siele acknowleged receipt of the letters and lambasted the claims as irrational. He said that he does not know Simon or his purpoted Amandebele of Botswana.

He said such an issue would make sense if it came from the government of Zimbabwe through official channels like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

 'First of all, we are well aware that we have Ndebele tribes here. Their chiefs have been working closely with us - the likes of Kgosi Jackalas have been representatives in the House of Chiefs before - and no one ever spoke to the government about Amandebele complaining,' he said.

'Kante ene, ako le mmotseng gore ke ngwana wa ga mang le gore o romilwe ke mang!' Siele said.Government chief spokesperson, Jeff Ramsay laughed off Simon's case, 'You see life is too short and I am not going to waste my time on such individuals'. Maria Magangeni, Simon's mother, distanced herself from her son's cause, adding that it is possibly a case of peer pressure.'We have no ties whatsoever with the royalty he is preaching. We tried to talk to him. Our uncles even advised him that he is too young and should just complete school, and stop disgracing our family name,' she said. Simon said a Facebook group known as The Tribe of the Amandebele of Botswana that no longer exists, voted him chief.

He claimed that the group had about 1 500 subscribers.Asked where his tribe is, Simon alleged that almost all inhabitants of the North East are Amandebele.

'Most of them are Amandebeles but the problem lies with identifying them. They call themselves Bakalanga and are in denial of their true identity because they fear being victimised in issues like these,' he explained.