The day was Saturday 20th October when Babirwa from all persuasions descended on their main Kgotla in Bobonong, hoping to hear the outcome of their chieftainship question.
The hope emanated from the delivery of a report to the Minister of Local Government, Peter Siele, by a Task Force that was set up to investigate and determine the rightful heir to Bobirwa chieftainship.
Low and behold, to the disappointment of the multitudes who thronged the Bobonong Kgotla, the minister was the bearer of bad news. He had come to convey to the Babirwa community that the report will not be made public and Kgosi Mmirwa Malema would continue serving in is his position until 2015, the time his current contract will be ending. He offered no resolution to who is the legitimate chief of Babirwa.
The minister decided for the reason best known to him, to conceal the findings of the Molomo Task Force Report despite having been funded from the public purse. I must declare herein that I am not a great admirer of chieftainship as an institution, particularly that people manning the office of a chief are often chosen by accident of birth without any meritorious considerations.
Besides, I am a democrat and duly subscribe to the antimonarchist ideals and commitments as espoused by the first article of the republican constitution, that Botswana is a Sovereign Republic. However, my commentary on the chieftainship is motivated by that it has been overtime a vital cog in Botswana’s local governance structures. Furthermore, it is steeped in the tradition of enhancing the identity and self-actualization of a community.
In that regard, when a community decides and request the appointing authority as to who should run the affairs of their Kgotla whether as a consequent of genealogical imperative or as part of democratization of their leadership selection process, in my view, that request should be granted.
The Bobirwa chieftainship question has been with us for a long time. At times, piece-meal interventions were proffered to pacify some claimants identified by the community as their legitimate chiefs and deserving to be at the Bobonong main Kgotla. Such pacifying interventions often took the form of making some claimants Subordinate Tribal Authorities deputizing the Senior Tribal Authority who has been holding the fort since 1972.
One such case is that of Kgosi Joel Masilo, the father to one of the claimants, Kgosi Adam Masilo. To put the Bobirwa chieftainship matter into its proper perspective it is important to briefly chronicle its historical development leading to Hon Siele’s Saturday 20th October 2012 announcement.
This is important for the reader to appreciate the evolution of the chieftainship issue in recent times. While the issue has been fermenting for a long time, matters real came to the fore when the claimants and their supporters became more vocal following two main developments that concerned the Babirwa community and their Kgotla. First there was the half-hearted attempt to review sections 77, 78 and 79 of the Botswana constitution to make it inclusive by recognizing other tribal groupings that inhabit Botswana.
That attempt increased the number of tribal representatives in the House of Chiefs to thirty-five. This development generated heated debates among Babirwa as to who is their legitimate and rightful chief who should represent them and their aspirations at the House of Chiefs. Secondly, the Senior Tribal Authority, Kgosi Mmirwa Malema indicated his desire to retire from his responsibilities at the Bobonong Kgotla. There were mumblings within the community that while he ascended to the Bobonong Kgotla through elections by a partisan electoral college, he wanted to be succeeded at the throne by one his children.
This suggestion rubbed some community members the wrong way as it was deemed to lack legitimacy. A delegation was sent to Serowe to protest against Kgosi Malema’s proposal and further recommended that the Bobonong Kgotla throne be returned to its legitimate and rightful heir, Subordinate Tribal Authority Kgosi Adam Masilo, appointed to his position on 27 March 2006 following the death of his father. One should point out here, rightly or wrongly that the Bobirwa Tribal Administration is subordinate to that of Bangwato in Serowe, hence the protest delegation was sent to Serowe.
This may be a subject of discussion for another day. In addition to Kgosi Mmirwa Malema and Kgosi Adam Masilo laying claim to the Bobirwa chieftainship, Kgosi Onkemetse Serumola came into the picture as the third claimant.
The Serowe Kgotla responded by sending Kgosi Mokhutshwane Sekgoma to Bobonong towards the latter part of 2010 to mediate in the dispute. He made no headway. His proposal was that Kgosi Mmirwa Malema should be allowed to serve the rest of his remaining term of office that was expected to elapse in 2015, after which Babirwa should decide on who should be their chief. Feeling aggrieved that he may not have his way of appointing one of his children to the throne, Malema suggested to the Bangwato royals that the issue needed to be resolved to finality during the term of his contract.
The Bangwato royals then decided to escalate the dispute to their seniors in the Ministry of Local Government, presided over by Hon. Peter Siele. The minister set up a Task Force to try to resolve the dispute of identifying the legitimate chief of Babirwa. The task force was chaired by Ray Molomo and other members were Kingsley Sebele, Shaw Mokgadi (a Bangwato Royal) and Dr Rodgers Molefhi (a Historian).
The task force adopted a number of approaches in trying to resolve the matter, which included among others open Kgotla hearings in Bobirwa villages and closed door representations by those invited by the task force to shed light on the matter towards its successful conclusion. The first open Kgotla meeting was held in Bobonong on the 1st of March 2012. I was there.
I heard with my two ears what Babirwa wanted. Subsequent to that, other open Kgotla meetings were held in other settlements in Bobirwa of Molalatau, Mathathane, Kobojango, Semolale and so forth. I also had the opportunity to appear before the Molomo Task Force at Tirelo House in Gaborone. I was invited, probably because I am a known community activist.
I was not sure as to what my intervention was going to be before I appeared before the task force. But I was pleased to be invited anyway and made some interesting observations. One of the observations I put before the Task Force was to challenge its own composition. The Task Force was trying to unravel a constitutional minority tribe issue, but was entirely made up of members from ‘majority’ tribes, and wondered how they could ably deal with issues peculiar to minorities. Was there a hidden agenda? I wondered.
Secondly, I pleaded with members of the Task Force that whatever their determination and recommendation, it should not compromise the prevailing serenity and unity within the Babirwa community. I drew their attention to the discussions that ensued at the Bobonong Kgotla meeting of the 1stof March 2012, that if it was the voice of the majority that mattered, it should be clear to them as to who should occupy the Bobirwa main Kgotla in Bobonong. May be I was wrong, because I was not privy to their detailed terms of reference.
The Molomo Task Force submitted their report to Minister Siele on the 23rd of March 2012. It had taken over seven months before Siele returned to the Bobonong Kgotla on the chieftainship matter. At the Kgotla meeting of 20th October 2012, he made a cursory attempt to address vexing chieftainship dispute. He informed the tribe that the findings of the Task Force would not be released to members of the public and Kgosi Malema will remain at the Kgotla until the end of his contract in 2015. Why?
One wondered. Obviously that left the chieftainship question unresolved. Babirwa felt short-changed. They wanted nothing less than the result of the report. It raised suspicions. It may be that, the Task Force’s mandate was after all to legitimize one of the claimants to the throne, they murmured.
It probably hit a snag when the evidence it collected from several hearings pointed in a different direction and contravened the wishes of government and those that represent its interests in Bobirwa. Say for instance, cabinet collective responsibility. But this should have not deterred the Minister from communicating to Babirwa the full findings of the Molomo Task Force. After all, they had legitimate expectations that the Task Force was constituted to help them resolve their dispute.
The resolution of their chieftainship dispute is a matter of critical importance that could enable them to rediscover self-belief and identify. Such matters are valuable to many communities, not just Babirwa. But as it stands, the dispute remains unresolved.
It will rear its ugly head again in 2015. I challenge Minister Siele to please help Babirwa achieve self-identify and pride by way of communicating to them the findings of the Task Force on Babirwa Chieftainship. We know there may be political and blood relation interests, but that should not distract you from faithfully discharging your responsibility to put the issue to rest. It is the right thing to do.
*Professor Bolaane is a resident of Bobonong and a community activist
