Sunday, February 16, 2025

Mokaila remains mum on allegations of misleading the nation

Kitso Mokaila, the current minister of Wildlife and Tourism, has chosen to reserve his comment on the subject of Basarwa hurling accusations at him for allegedly misleading the nation.
Mokaila was accused of misleading the nation on the matter concerning the recruitment of the negotiating team on behalf of the CKGR.

Last week, Smith Moeti, who happens to be a student at the University of Botswana (UB) and a resident of Metsi-a-nong, one of the settlements within the CKGR, had outrightly accused Mokaila of misleading the country. He said that Mokaila mislead Batswana when he said that the Basarwa were involved in the process of picking the people that were to represent the settlers of the CKGR.
The recruited people whom the Basarwa say they were not made aware of are now known as the team negotiating on the behalf of the CKGR.

Last week’s issue of The Telegraph had erroneously cited the source as Bihela Sekere, who also happens to be a student at the University of Botswana.

Sekere claims to not have a say in the matter since he is a temporary resident of New Xade.
Moeti had revealed that he, like many other CKGR residents, was surprised to hear the Minister announcing on the news on radio and television that the Basarwa had chosen people to negotiate on their behalf.

However, Moeti added that they were made aware of a directive from the Office of the President ordering that a negotiating committee should be set up to represent Basarwa. But he insists that they were not given a chance to approve the committee, contrary to statements made by Mokaila.
“We were also told to not bring the media and Survival International into the matter. We were told that Survival International only brings trouble and confusion into negotiations,” he added.
The Public Relations Officer at the Ministry of Wildlife and Tourism, Archibald Ngakayagae, said that Mokaila was not in a position to comment on the issue because he didn’t want to break his promises to the Basarwa.

“He had reached an agreement with the Basarwa, which he cannot break that they should not involve the media in their proceedings,” said Ngakayagae.
Ngakayagae said that Mokaila will have to do some consulting with the people involved before offering any comment.

Meanwhile the Botswana Congress Party Youth League (BCPYL) secretary general, Thato Osupile, said that the league’s position on the matter is that negotiations should be beefed up with interested parties from NGOs that are agreed upon by both government and the Basarwa.

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