The family wants the government to allow it to bury their father in the CKGR. It is now a year and a month since Gaoberekwe’s body has been lying at Joyce Funeral Parlour in Gantsi. “Our stand is still the same. If anyone wants to bury our father in any area outside Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), then he/she is free to do so. As a family, we are not going to take part in any burial of our father, which is outside the CKGR. We do not care if we get arrested or not. The government is free to take that body from the mortuary and we cannot fight for it but it will be government's burial alone,” family spokesperson Smith Moeti said in an interview yesterday. Late last year, the family was planning to appeal its case at the International Criminal Court of Justice. That was hardly after the Court of Appeal (CoA) dismissed a case in which the family wanted to bury the late father (Pitseng) in the CKGR.
The deceased’s remains have been lying in the mortuary since mid-December 2021 pending the finalisation of the court case. The Court of Appeal has given the family seven days to have buried the deceased and allowed them to bury him in any place of their choice apart from the CKGR. Currently, the body is at funeral parlour, which is far from New Xade village. At some point, the family claimed that it was impossible to bury the deceased within the given seven days as per the Court decision but later after a family meeting, it was resolved that they will not take part in his burial. The family had disclosed to this publication it owes Joyce Funeral Parlour over P100 thousand for keeping the body.
