“There is nowhere the Land Board is empowered to adjudicate over inheritance disputes. It too does not have that jurisdiction,” Justice Maripe noted. In its earlier ruling, the Land Tribunal here had said it did not have the jurisdiction over inheritance disputes, and had advised the parties to consider approaching the High Court for resolution of the case. The Tribunal had also addressed the objectors’ locus standi and constitutional issues on the matter. Locus standi is the right or ability to bring legal action to a court of law, or to appear in court. The dispute was triggered by Kgosi Tawana Letsholathebe Moremi’s application of September 10, 2019 to Tawana Land Board (TLB) for Khuti ya ga Mathiba or Chief’s Island, which is located within Moremi Game Reserve. Kgosi Tawana’s application is based on a claim for inheritance. Following that, Council and other Basarwa and Bayei tribespeople lodged an objection to Tawana's application with the land board.
The objectors also laid claim to Chief’s Island, which they prefer to call by its original name of Tsaoboro, as their ancestral home. Tawana Land Board out-rightly rejected their objection claiming that “the reasons that have been brought before the board lack merits to sustain the objection”. But Khwedom Council and 10 others appealed to the Land Tribunal on the grounds that the TLB “did not have jurisdiction to determine what was essentially an inheritance dispute”. On April 26, 2021 the parties (TLB and the objectors) agreed to a settlement that was made an order of court whose terms included that the objectors withdrew their appeal on the condition that TLB would communicate to them a determination on Kgosi Tawana’s application within 14 days of making the decision. On November 12, 2021 the objectors received a letter, dated October 11, 2021 on TLB’s resolution to the effect that the Board resolved to discuss Khwedom Council’s objection to Kgosi Tawana Letsholathebe Moremi’s application for Chief’s Island on the following reasons: “The reasons that have been brought before the Board lack merit to sustain the objection.”
