Kgosi Tawana reclaims lucrative Chief’s Island
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Batawana Paramount Chief Kgosi Tawana Moremi II will reclaim his ancestral land known as the Chief’s Island in the heart of Moremi Game Reserve as government is in the process of handing back the contentious concessions belonging to the Batawana tribe, WeekendPost can authoritatively reveal.
In 2019 prior to the much anticipated 2019 general elections, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi promised Batawana that some of their issues would be resolved amicably citing the Maun Educational Park and the Moremi Game Reserve which the tribe had long called on the government to return to the community. In a letter dated 2nd March 2020, Tawana Land Board wrote to the Tribal Administration citing that during the board meeting which was on the 20th January 2020, considered the Savingram from the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources, and Tourism referenced ENTC 6/33/9/1 IX (42);
“In this regard the Board resolves the following; to inform Batawana Tribal Authority that Tawana Land Board is in receipt of the Savingram that the government of Botswana has handed over Maun Education Park to Batawana Community,” reads the letter signed by Land Board Secretary, G Basalumi. “Therefore, the board approves the transfer of Maun Educational Park from the government of Botswana to Batawana community. The community is therefore advised to form the Community Trust or submit the name of the established Trust in order to facilitate the transfer.”
Speaking to WeekendPost this week, the Mobilization and Publicity Executive at Matsaakgang Regiment which comprises of Kgosi Tawana II, Douglas Mokenane said a provision will be made at a Kgotla meeting which will be held soon to determine the rightful custodian of the said land. Mokenane said morafe will be given the opportunity to come up with ideas on how the land will benefit the community going forward.
President Masisi acknowledged that Kgosi Tawana II used to debate the issue in Parliament but assured Batawana that they would get their property back following the laid government procedures. He explained that the issue was being handled by the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Tourism to process and return the property to the land board. President Masisi also pointed out that the issue of the Chief’s Island concession would also be allocated through the same process.
Mokenane told this publication that the issue of Batawana land was delayed because some people had vested interest in the land. “As far as I know, there has never been any appeal by the Tawana Land Board that necessitated the Ministry to intervene. This is stipulated in the Tribal land Act, instead government should request the Land Board and not give directives as was the case,” he said.
The morafe spokesperson said both the Maun Educational Park and Moremi Game Reserve were established by morafe under the Land policy of 1939, before independence. “The Dikgosi were custodians of land allocation under the customary law”, said Mokenane. He said as the people had no money to maintain the land they allowed government to run it on behalf of the community. According to local press, Kgosi Tawana Moremi has in the past maintained that the Chief’s Island is his personal property.
He contended that it was traditionally his forefathers’ hunting ground. The Minister of Tourism at the time, Tshekedi Khama, said there was documentation to prove that Batawana gave Moremi Game Reserve—which they formed as a tribal territory in 1960—to the government.
The same sentiments were shared by Matsaakgang spokesperson who pointed that the Chief’s Island belonged to Lelwapa la bogosi.
However, Keith Diako of Batawana Advisory Committee, Kgosi Tawana’s contention has been that, when all prime tourism areas in the country were taken from Tawana Land board, a number of concessions were transferred to foreign business people without consultation with locals. “The Land board are administrators of the tribal land, on behalf of the people, the land does not belong to them. But certain pieces of land were transferred from Land board custody without consultation and chaos emanated from there. There was no longer accountability.
A Minister appointed those he wanted to run the show and allocated the land to those he/ she wanted,” Tawana said. However Mokenane is of the view that government’s decision to come up with conditions is only because they want transparency and accountability in the manner in which the land will be run. He said in the past the Batawana/ Ngamiland Founa Conservation Society was the one which managed the land in question until 1979. He however said the Trust has not been active because it was only established to run the land but after the land was transferred to government the trust became inactive.
Mokenane said some members of the trust have passed on however he did not rule out the possibility of resuscitating the Trust but said the decision lies with morafe. He said another Trust was called Kgamelo which was established to fight for the land ownership of Batawana. In another twist, Mokenane said ever since government took control of the Batawana land which they know has been making a lot of money, no royalties were ever paid to the community. He said as morafe, they do not want to believe that no monies were ever paid to that effect citing that they did not want to rush any decisions.
Mokenane did not rule out the possibility of taking a legal route if the royalties are not paid but chose to say the decision will be made by morafe. Kgosi Tawana, has been at battle with government which has been simmering over for years now. At the centre of the controversy, is a 2014 directive by government to take Okavango Delta from Tawana Land board management and place it in the custody of Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO), through a controversial initiative termed ‘The Land bank’.
The current situation is that state land is controlled by Central Government, under the Ministry of Land and Housing and BTO; an arrangement which does not sit well with the Ngami-land people in general. The land belonged to the Batawana people and in 1962 Chief Moremi's wife saw that the local wildlife was being decimated by the hunters and created Moremi Game Reserve.
The Reserve covers large tracts of the central and eastern areas of the Okavango. It is dominated by Chief's Island which was the Batawana Chief's main hunting ground in historic times. The region is vast, with areas of permanent floodplains as well as drier seasonal areas.
Moremi Game Reserve has a vast range of habitats which supports a great diversity of animal life; from large herds of elephants all year round to the waterways; home to numerous hippos.
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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
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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.