BOKSPITS: Many people might not be aware of it, but for many years, a cloud of uneasiness has hovered over the community of Bokspits over an unfulfilled promise of compensation by both former British colonisers and apartheid rulers of South Africa.Many people in this area, especially the elderly, have carried the pain of a forced removal from Gemsbok and Mabuasehube wildlife reserves (transfrontier park) 75 years ago. One of them is Kgosi Serai Esterhuizen of Bokspits who is still aggrieved that the British colonial masters who ran the affairs of Bechuanaland Protectorate and the former apartheid oppressors in South Africa have failed to deliver on a promise made in 1938 when people were forced out of their land in the game reserves.
The eviction, which Kgosi Esterhuizen describes as inhumane, has deprived their people of a basic birthright to choose where they want to live."There are still houses in there," he told Mmegi. "My grandfather's stone house and kraal still stands and there was a site where people had started a clay brick molding project. "Some of the bricks are still there but no compensation has been paid for such losses. There is a book about the injustices that took place; it is called Give Me My Man." According to Esterhuizen, while some people settled in Bokspits others moved to places like Werda and Gakhibane. He recalls that the police who rode on camelback used guns to intimidate anyone who dared resist eviction.
