The High Court has thrown out a case in which some Basarwa tribesmen challenged the legality of the government’s refusal to bury their kinsman in Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR).
Justice Itumeleng Segopolo on Monday issued an order directing that the corpse of Pitseng Gaoberekwe be buried outside the reserve within 10 days.
Segopolo also ordered that failure to enforce the court’s order by Gaoberekwe’s son and lead applicant in the case, Lesiame to bury his father in Metsimanong settlement inside the reserve would result in him being incarcerated.
The Judge said reasons for reaching this decision would be made available at a later stage.
This publication has it on good authority that the family intends to appeal Segopolo’s decision.
The corpse of Gaoberekwe has been lying in a mortuary in Ghanzi for more than four months now. Initially, the Government through the Ghanzi District Council reached an out of court settlement with Gaoberekwe’s family.
The matter was escalated to the High Court after the Council and the family could not agree on where he should be buried.
The Council preferred that the deceased be buried in New Xade while his family insisted that he be buried in the Reserve where he was born. In what amounts to playing hide and seek, the government later climbed down on its position through the backdoor.
This was done through the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Parks, which though had been cited in the initial court papers, did not appear before Court.
The department refused to issue a permit for the corpse to be buried in the Reserve on the basis that the deceased was not among the 189 Basarwa from the CKGR was found to unconstitutional by the 2006 judgement.
The Director of Department of Wildlife and National Parks Kabelo Senyatso has deposed an affidavit that “no body is, by current law, entitled to be buried inside the CKGR.”
“It is averred that neither the applicant nor any person in Botswana has the right to bury their dead anywhere in the country where they please, such right as exist being limited by law,” he said.
Senyatso further stated that “it is further averred that the applicant (the deceased man’s son) nor any other person in Botswana has the right to bury their dead inside a game reserve or a national park or any other protected place.”
Senyatso said the Government has, however, as a matter of policy and respect “to the Courts permitted and will continue to permit only the surviving 189 people in the Sesana case., being the only individuals identified by this court as the applicants in that case.”
Lesiame Pitseng argued that his father was a litigant in the Sesana case and deserves all the benefits that accrue to all applicants in that case.
“We know now that Calvin Kamanakao, Kametse Mahame, Mokwepa Ngwaa, El Negro and many other corpses were buried in the game reserve or national parks,” he said.
He said his father was a permanent resident of the CKGR and has a homestead where he currently resides.
“In addition, my father was applicant no. 163 in the Sesana case and he has equal rights with the 189 applicants,” Pitseng stated. He said the government cannot only assert that only 189 people deserve to be buried in the CKGR and extend the list by arbitrary criterion only known to the government.
