During the one week that they met for their first session of the year, members of Ntlo ya Dikgosi heard a radical proposal for how they can become just as powerful as their colleagues in the upper house and in the process, strengthen bogosi. Such proposal was made by Kgosi Johane Rakumako of Tswapong Region when he presented a motion through which he asked the government to recognise bogosi as the fourth arm of government by amending the constitution.
When tabling the motion, Rakumako complained about the steadily diminishing status of bogosi and lamented growing public perception that the institution is just a waste of resources. With regard to the latter, he gave the example of the customary court being lower in status to the magistrate court, noting that some litigants reject the former in favour of the latter.
“That wouldn’t happen if bogosi was independent and adequately empowered in terms of the constitution,” said Rakumako, singling out two provisions (Sections 83 and 88) in the constitution, the first for having disempowered Ntlo ya Dikgosi and the second for being ignored by the government.
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