Kgatleng East and West Members of Parliament are appealing for political intervention between the government and the Bakgatla tribe to resolve the stand off between the warring parties.
The appeals came after the vice president paid a visit to Bakgatla main Kgotla on Thursday, a meeting which the royal family appeared to have boycotted.
“It is very clear that the two parties are at loggerheads and this is unlikely to be of any help in the end,” said Gilbert Mangole, the MP for Kgatleng West.
He said it is high time that the dispute between the two is resolved through political intervention otherwise there shall always be bad blood between them.
He noted that one of the things that results in Bakgatla not being comfortable and appearing rather ‘rebellious’ in meetings led by senior government officials is the presence of heavily armed security agents in meetings.
Mangole says he gives credit to former president Sir Ketumile Masire in that he was able to intervene when Bakgatla had unresolved issues in the past.
His counter-part, Isaac Mabiletsa, also shared the same sentiments with Mangole.
“Enough is enough; we can no longer allow the situation to go on like this,” he said. “President Khama should swallow his pride and converse with both the tribe and the royal family.”
However, suspended deputy paramount chief Bana Sekai Lenchwe said, “We were not told about the visit of the vice president to Mochudi.”
He explained that he got to know that the VP was coming just a day before the meeting and was only alerted by seeing people cleaning the main kgotla.
“I approached them and inquired why they are cleaning and their response was that the VP was visiting the following day (Thursday) and I then left.”
He defended the village leadership and stated that they “could not attend the VP’s meeting because we had our own scheduled kgotla meetings throughout the Kgatleng district”.
He said the Office of the President does not respect them, adding that it is a behavior he sees as uncalled for.
Sekai questioned why the invitation was made through a tribal secretary and said he found it disappointing and disrespectful.
He said the VP erred in informing the public that there is a backlog of cases.
“The cases allocated to me for adjudication are the ones still pending because I am suspended and no one has been appointed to hear them otherwise other presiding officers who are not under suspension should be presiding,” he said.
Meanwhile Kgosi Sekai expressed disappointment about the bad conduct of certain government employees who went on to cancel a kgotla meeting scheduled for last Thursday in Rasesa. There was confusion and Rasesa residents ended up missing the meeting.
“We will investigate and find out whoever misled our people,” he said.
