Our Chief Was Abducted-Bakgatla

The royal with his younger brother Mmusi and 11 Bakgatla went into hiding last Wednesday shortly after chief magistrate, Barnabas Nyamadzabo remanded them in custody pending trial in the case where they face multiple charges of unlawful floggings in Mochudi.  However, last Thursday, the men surrendered to the police, allegedly after some tribal elders intervened and persuaded them to obey the law.

But Bakgatla have dismissed talk that their chief has surrendered to the police and marched on Saturday to express solidarity with him and his co-defendants. The majority view expressed by many of the speakers at a well-attended crisis meeting on Saturday was that Kgafela has been abducted by the government and taken to prison in Gaborone. The decision to march through the village to the police station appeared to be unanimous. "We know that our Kgosi was abducted. We need government to know that they are now treading where they should not," said one of the many speakers.