The horror and joy fixing a presidential send-off

SIKI MOTSHWARI JOHANNES
Correspondent | Friday February 8, 2008 00:00

Critical stakeholders from the 43 villages that constitute the North East District gather at the Masunga main Kgotla meeting. This is no ordinary meeting. It is an epoch-making gathering preparing to give Mogae a fitting send-off. At 10 am on the dot the meeting begins in earnest. Through its chair the committee delivers a progress report to a well attentive audience. All appeared well. It occurs to me that no stone has been left unturned. The fundraising exercise has been a success story. Out of 43 villages only three, Patayamatebele, Matopi and Mowane, failed to raise the P200 that was asked from each village. Some villages were so generous as to go beyond the P200 quota. Cash at hand amounted to a handsome figure of P11,399. Thanks to the collective efforts of the councilors, civil servants, Dikgosi and dikgosana and the MP for Tati East, Samson Moyo Guma, the President will walk away with gifts of four beasts and four goats.

In winding up her presentation, the District Commissioner, J.B. Molebatsi called for the spirit of togetherness and asked everyone to treat the President's visit as a North East District affair.

As the District Commissioner steps down from the podium there is a hurdle. Various stakeholders spoke and expressed displeasure at the manner in which the preparations were handled.

The District Commissioner and the Kgosi had to parry scathing attacks. The councilors complain that the Coordinating Committee ostracised them by failing to involve them in fund raising.

Left in the cold, the councilors had to go it alone in terms of mobilising resources to buy a gift. They even wanted to present their gift as a separate entity rather than as part of the whole package for the district as requested by the organising committee.

At the same time it was apparent that there were some deep seated differences among the villages. At the heart of the problem is the relationship between Masunga and the peripheral villages.

The other villages seemed to accuse Masunga of displaying the big brother attitude. Some villages were not happy with what appeared to be Masunga village's domineering influence.

Village development committees from the outlying villages complained that they were not adequately consulted and therefore they were not given a fair share of participation in the preparations.

At one stage some questioned the origin of a certain youth who featured in the programme as one of the speakers to bid the President farewell.

At this stage, realising that the gathering was getting too agitated, the chief intervened. He called for calm and restraint and his word was heeded.

'To err is human' he reminded the gathering. That did the trick as it seemed to mollify everyone.

Having overcome the hurdle, everybody looked forward to the arrival of the President.