At least in as far as cultural protocols go, Serogola Seretse is no longer the Acting Bangwato Regent because the Bangwato Kgosikgolo and former president, Ian Khama, has all but fired him.
“Nna go simolola gompieno, ke bata go le bolelela gore ga ke mo recognise-a gore ke moemedi wame mo kgoteng ya Serowe,” says Khama in a recorded WhatsApp audio clip that was apparently sent to the CEO of his foundation, Mogomotsi Kaboeamodimo, and amplified over loudspeakers at a kgotla meeting that was controversially held at the Serowe kgotla on December 3, 2022.
At a point where the latter statement ends, a female voice is heard to exclaim a full-throated “Yes!” that is taken up by some other people around her. Khama continued: “Ga ke mo recognise-e. So ke kopa gore le tswe mo go ene yaanong. Ha le bata dithuso le ta a ya ko go ba bangwe. Go na le dikgosana, go na le ba bangwe; le ta a ko go bone. Tswang mo go ene.” A video of this brief episode (which is on Sunday Standard’s Facebook page) shows Kaboeamodimo holding his iPhone aloft over a microphone to aid the amplification.
In their entirety, Khama’s words loosely translate as follows: “Starting today, I want to inform you that I don’t recognise him as my representative at the Serowe kgotla. I don’t recognise him and implore you to also withdraw your recognition. If you want help with [official business], you can go to other dikgosi, like headmen. Go to those and don’t recognise him [as well].”
Serogola (the “him” in Khama’s audio message) has temporarily ascended the regency after the undignified exit of Sediegeng Kgamane, who is Khama’s paternal cousin. A cool, calm and collected man, Kgamane was collateral damage in the battle between Khama and his predecessor and nemesis, President Mokgweetsi Masisi. Kgamane had two masters: Khama as the person he was holding the fort for and Masisi as head of a government that paid his salary. Having stepped in Kgamane’s shoes, Seretse also finds himself having to please two masters who are never on the same page on anything.
Throughout this saga, Khama’s supporters have been using Bangwato’s main kgotla in Serowe to hold meetings in support of their tribal leader – who currently lives in exile in South Africa. While tribal and royal property, the kgotla (plural: dikgotla) is also administered and maintained by the government. In exercise of murky powers that the Minister of Local Government has over dikgotla, Kgotla Autlwetse, himself Khama’s subject and a Serowe native, decreed that the meetings in question shouldn’t be held at the Serowe kgotla. As Kgamane before him and as a civil servant who answers to Autlwetse, Serogola is required to implement such decree. Doing so has brought him into direct conflict with Khama – which is why he relayed a WhatsApp message via Kaboeamodimo that his supporters should also withdraw their recognition of Serogola as his representative.
Out of practical necessity and given the centrality of a regent in everyday life, the tribe is not heeding Khama’s call. Serogola is still trying cases at the kgotla and signing official documentation presented to him by village residents. Interestingly, as the regent, he also supervises all dikgosi in not just Serowe but the entire Central District. Among them are those that Khama directed his supporters to in place of Serogola.
As a supreme traditional leader, Khama has full cultural rights to pick a regent to represent him at the kgotla. However, his right to actually appoint (and by extension fire) one is limited. Bogosi (inherited tribal leadership) is administered through the Bogosi Act which gives final say on the appointment of a regent (Moemela Kgosi) not to the kgosi but the Minister of Local Government. The Act provides that “a Kgosi may, after consultation with the people of the area, and with the approval of the Minister, appoint any person as his or her Moemela Kgosi in respect of any area of his or her tribal territory or tribal area and may in like manner terminate the appointment.” It also provides that “any recognition or appointment made by the Minister under this subsection shall not be withdrawn or terminated by the Kgosi.” The latter necessarily means that legally, Khama cannot terminate Seretse’s recognition as Acting Regent.
The issue came up in in the last parliament session courtesy of a question by the Gaborone Central MP, Tumisang Mangwegape-Healy who asked a much broader question about the Serowe saga. He particularly wanted to know whether Serogola was still in post.
“In terms of Section 15 of Bogosi Act, only the minister can dismiss a kgosi – nobody else has such powers,” Autlwetse responded. “In other words, Kgosi Serogola is still in post at the kgotla and will continue as such because there has been no misconduct on his part to warrant his dismissal by the only person who can do so – the minister.”
Perhaps the most interesting part of this story is the plot twist. The Bogosi Act went into effect during Khama’s first month in presidential office and was used for the entire period of his presidency. When President Khama signed the Bogosi Bill into law on April 30, 2008, he effectively agreed that “any recognition or appointment made by the Minister under this subsection shall not be withdrawn or terminated by the Kgosi.”
The Serowe case is tragic all the way around. Khama is from the north and Masisi is from the south. Ever since the feud between the two men began, this mere geographic differences have been amplified and tribalised. With its lack of discernment and restraint, the government has made a bad situation even worse.
Not long ago, official correspondence that only the addressee (Kgamane) should have seen somehow went viral on social media. The correspondence was a letter from the Department of Tribal Administration and was essentially an eviction letter instructing Kgamane to move out a house that he had been occupying by virtue of his position as Bangwato Regent. It turned out that the house in question doesn’t belong to the government but the tribe. Supposing the house belonged to the government, it would even have been necessary to leak the letter to social media but that is what happened.
Some Bangwato viewed this incident as an evidence of the government (meaning Masisi) expanding its attack beyond Khama and to his subjects. A good many of them aren’t interested in Khama’s political battles with Masisi and don’t even support Khama because they can see right through his political opportunism. However, they are greatly displeased that the government is hounding a peaceable and elderly person a few short months after hounding him out of an office he held for 34 years. This is just the sort of situation that Khama would welcome and exploit to the fullest.
