Bakwena fault ousted leaders
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Khan (pictured), Mmatli bring hope to Molepolole
The former legislators of Molepolole village in the Kweneng District, Daniel Kwelagobe and Gaotlhaetse Matlhabaphiri have been accused of failing to bring ‘‘sound’’ developments to the village during their long stay in Parliament but instead promoted the spirit of hatred among the people.
Speakers at this year’s inaugural kgotla meeting by the village’s new Member of Parliament (MP), Mohammed Khan and Tlamelo Mmatli cried out for a better leadership that would unite the “torn tribe”.
Some residents such as Aobakwe Sekgwa alleged that the former political leaders did not treat electorates equally and warned the new elects to avoid repeating the same mistakes if they are to survive the next general elections.
“If you want to see our disdain, behave like gods and make people bow to your demands, promote factionalism and choose who you relate with and who not to,” Sekgwa advised the legislators.
Some royal members of the Bakwena tribe admitted that there was too much animosity in their midst and expressed their wish for unity.
“We are a torn tribe. For a very long time, we were taught a strategy to hate and not to trust each other. Our tribe is divided. Our tribe has been taught evil above anything else. Just like a traditional healer who gets murder lessons from another healer, he tests the strength of his lessons on the tutor and so you have mastered the hatred strategy and evicted the tutors,” Kgosi Keineetse Sebele rhetorically shared his feelings.
Yet another royal member, Kgosi Kgosikwena Sebele expressed his delight at the way Molepolole has voted in the last general elections. Kgosikwena recited a poem of approval and suggested that, “an army of ants laid in ambush and unceremoniously attacked and bitten the snapper and left him in shock.”
Molepolole voted against the ruling party legislators, Matlhabaphiri and Kwelagobe in the October general elections and replaced them with those of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC). Kwelagobe, who holds the country’s longest serving member of Parliament record and was called “father of the house”, had a surprise defeat by the UDC’s Mmatli after forty-years of uninterrupted Parliament Service.
Since a kgotla is a meeting place that do not tolerate partisan politics, the people fell short of naming their victims.
Kgosi Kgosikwena Sebele and Keineetse Sebele are brothers and members of the royal clan. Kgosikwena served in the Molepolole customary court for many years including as a regent before he was appointed to head the customary court of appeal. He was brought down from the customary court of appeal throne in 2011 when he was charged with stock theft and slapped with a four-year jail sentence which he later appealed and won.
Before joining the tribal administration Kgosikwena was an active member of the opposition Botswana National Front, which is currently a group member of the UDC. Both Molepolole constituencies, Molepolole South and North has been won by UDC. In the 1970’s Kgosikwena challenged Kwelagobe and lost dismally.
Allegedly the rivalry ensued from then onwards such that the two could not agree on a simple initiative. During the Kgari and Kealeboga battle for chieftaincy at the beginning of the millennium, allegedly Kgwelagobe was on Kgari’s side and Kgosikwena on Kealeboga’s side.
After winning the marathon case before the court of law, Kgari III appointed Kgosikwena’s brother, Keineetse Sebele as his deputy nonetheless.
The slow developments which have been coming to the village has therefore been blamed on the rivalry between the tribal and political leadership and voting for a different party was the only hope for the people whose major concerns are bread and butter issues.
Many other speakers at the meeting worried about the decline pass rate at Kgari Sechele Senior secondary School, the long queues at local health posts, bad conditions of infrastructure and service at Sekgoma Memorial hospital including expensive surgical machines that have been lying idle for years due to lack of surgeons and doctors.
The people also worry about petty theft, dark streets, unreliable rainfall, limited ploughing utensils and having to go for a days without clean tap water. Some of the people asked the new legislators to address these issues instead.
“I sit in the Parliament Health Committee and I would do all I can to address problems at the Scottish Livingston Memorial Hospital. Are you aware that the government paid a whooping P70 Million to Bokamoso Private hospital in medical bills for heart disease patients! The patients were referred to the hospital from Princess Marina hospital and yet the machines for such procedures are lying idle in our hospital because we do not have doctors!” Khan spoke to the people.
Khan who won against the former assistant Minister of Health, Matlhabaphiri promised to help in the facilitation of negotiations between the Ministry of Health and heart surgeons in the near future.
News
DPP drops Kably threat to kill case
The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Chief Whip and Member of Parliament for Letlhakeng/Lephephe Liakat Kably has welcomed the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP)’s decision not to prosecute BDP councillor, Meshack Tshenyego who allegedly threatened to kill him. However, the legislator has warned that should anything happen to his life, the state and the courts will have to account.
In an interview with this publication, Kablay said he has heard that the DPP has declined to prosecute Tshenyego in a case in which he threatened to kill him adding that the reasons he received are that there was not enough evidence to prosecute. “I am fine and at peace with the decision not to prosecute over evidential deficits but I must warn that should anything happen to my life both the DPP and the Magistrate will have to account,” Kablay said.
Connectedly, Kably said he has made peace with Tshenyego, “we have made peace and he even called me where upon we agreed to work for the party and bury the hatchet”.
The DPP reportedly entered into a Nolle Prosequi in the matter, meaning that no action would be taken against the former Letlhakeng Sub-district council chairperson and currently councillor for Matshwabisi.
According to the charge sheet before the Court, councilor Tshenyego on July 8th, 2022 allegedly threatened MP Kably by indirectly uttering the following words to nominatedcouncilor Anderson Molebogi Mathibe, “Mosadi wa ga Liakat le ban aba gagwe ba tsile go lela, Mosadi wame le banake le bone ba tsile go lela. E tla re re mo meeting, ka re tsena meeting mmogo, ke tla mo tlolela a bo ke mmolaya.”
Loosely translated this means, Liakat’s wife and children are going to shed tears and my wife and kids will shed tears too. I will jump on him and kill him during a meeting.
Mathibe is said to have recorded the meeting and forwarded it to Kably who reported the matter to the police.
In a notice to the Magistrate Court to have the case against Tshenyego, acting director of Public Prosecutions, Wesson Manchwe cited the nolle prosequi by the director of public prosecution in terms of section 51 A (30) of the Constitution and section 10 of the criminal procedure and evidence act (CAP 08:02) laws of Botswana as reasons for dropping the charges.
A nolle prosequi is a formal notice of abandonment by a plaintiff or prosecutor of all or part of a suit or action.
“In pursuance of my powers under section 51 A (300 of the Constitution and section 10 of the criminal procedure and evidence act (CAP 08:02) laws of Botswana, I do hereby stop and discontinue criminal proceedings against the accused Meshack Tshenyego in the Kweneng Administrative District, CR.No.1077/07/2022 being the case of the State vs Tshenyego,” said Manchwe. The acting director had drafted the notice dropping the charges on 13th day of March 2023.
The case then resumed before the Molepolole Magistrate Solomon Setshedi on the 14th of March 2023. The Magistrate issued an order directing “that matters be withdrawn with prejudice to the State, accused is acquitted and discharged.”
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DPP seizes prosecution duties from Police
Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) has finally taken over prosecution from the Botswana Police Service (BPS). The police have been prosecuting for years, but the takeover means that they will now only focus on investigations and then hand over to the DPP for prosecution.
Talks of complete takeover began as far back as 2008, but for years it seemed implementation was sluggish. However, the Minister of Justice, Machana Shamukuni, revealed that the complete takeover is expected to be completed soon.
During a presentation to the Committee of Supply by Shamukuni this week, it was revealed that the project has been implemented in 22 police stations nationwide, including Maun, Selebi-Phikwe, Palapye, Francistown, and Kasane. He further stated that the project has been allocated P3,000,000 for the 2023/2024 financial year to facilitate the opening of more satellite offices for the DPP.
Shamukuni said the Lobatse station is scheduled for a complete takeover by the end of May 2023, while the Kasane DPP satellite office has been established and became operational as of February 1, 2023.
“As reported previously, preparations are at an advanced stage to open a satellite office in Tsabong to curtail expenses, as well as frequent long-distance trips to these areas, as it is currently serviced by the Lobatse DPP office,” Shamukuni said.
Shamukuni said that the takeover strategy is to enable a seamless and gradual takeover of prosecution from the BPS without overwhelming and overstretching the thin resources at its disposal.
According to Shamukuni, the implementation of the prosecution takeover project has increased the workload of the 211 prosecutors in the DPP establishment.
Furthermore, the Justice Minister said DPP statistics show that the DPP has a total of 11,903 cases and dockets as of January 2023. He indicated that this is a significant increase in the number of cases being handled by the DPP, considering that in November 2021, the DPP had just over 8,471 files.
“Out of the total case load, 8 382 are cases pending before various courts while 3521 are dockets received from law enforcement agencies of which 1 325 are awaiting service of summons while the rest are being assessed for suitability of prosecution or otherwise” said Shamukuni.
He further stated that The DPP has consistently maintained an 80% success rate in matters completed at court.
“As at the end of January 2023, the success rate stood at 82.3% against a target of 90% whilst the average performance in respect of turnaround time for conclusion of cases at court stood at 17.5 months against a target of 18 months,” he said.
BACKLOG OF CASES – LAND TRIBUNAL
Meanwhile, Minister Shamukuni has revealed that Gaborone land Tribunal is experiencing a backlog of cases. Before parliament this week, Shamukuni revealed that a total 230 appeals were completed for the period of April 2022- December 2022 and only 76.5% of them were completed within set time frame.
The minister said that the Gaborone division has experiencing a backlog of cases due to manpower constraints and he further indicated that presiding officers from other divisions have been brought in to expedite case disposal.
He further indicated that the land tribunal is a specialized court that has been empowered to resolve appeals arising from land boards. “It has been mandated to determine appeals from the decisions of Physical planning committees of Districts Councils” said Shamukuni.
Land Tribunal relocated to the Ministry of Justice from Ministry of Land and Water Affairs in November 2022.
“An amount of P37, 842,670 is requested to cover salaries, allowance and other operational expenses for the Department of the land Tribunal,” alluded Shamukuni
News
BCP, AP stalemate in 7 constituencies
When the Botswana Congress Party (BCP), Alliance for Progressives, Botswana Labour Party (BLP), and conveners reconvene next week, the controversial issue of allocation of the seven constituencies will be the main topic of discussion, WeekendPost can reveal.
Not only that, but the additional four constituencies will also dominate the talks. The idea is to finally close the “constituency allocation phase,” which has proven to be the most difficult part of the ongoing negotiations.
Earlier this year, the two parties announced that the marathon talks would be concluded by February. Even at a media briefing last month, BCP Secretary General Goretetse Kekgonegile and Publicity Secretary Dr. Mpho Pheko were optimistic that the negotiations would be concluded before the end of February.
However, it is now mid-March and the talks have yet to be concluded. What could be the reasons for the delay? This is a question that both Kekgonegile and Pheko have not responded to, as they have ignored the reporters’ inquiries. However, a senior figure within the party has confided to this publication as to what is delaying the highly anticipated negotiations.
“We are reconvening next week to finalize constituency allocations, taking into account the additional four new ones plus the outstanding seven,” he explained. It later surfaced that Gaborone Central, Gaborone North, Mogoditshane, Tswapong North, Francistown West, Tati West, and Nata Gweta are all contested by both BCP and AP. This is because the other 50 constituencies were allocated by December of last year.
The three parties have failed to find common ground for the Bosele Ward by-elections. Are these constituencies not a deal breaker for the talks? “None of the constituencies is a deal breaker,” responded a very calm BCP official.
In Bosele Ward, AP has yielded to BCP, despite most of its members disapproving the decision. On the other hand, BLP has refused, and it will face off with BCP together with Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC).
The decision by BLP to face off with BCP has been labelled as a false start for the talks by political observers.