Kgosi Kgolo Kgafela II gave the gathering a brief summary of the law relevant to the facts narrated, which may be summarised as follows. (a) A document purporting to be agreement is invalid where it is shown that one or more of the parties to the alleged agreement did not give his consent, and worse, if he was not consulted at all on or about fundamental aspects of the alleged agreement. A Constitution is no exception. (b) A document purporting to be agreement is invalid where it can be shown that it was wholly or partly induced by fraud or misrepresentation. Those representing her majesty the queen were certainly misled by Sir Ketumile Masire’s direct statements addressed in my summary of the facts, and generally by both Masire and Seretse pretending that they had consulted the people of Bechuanaland about the constitution and actually had their mandate to finalise the constitution in its form as presented at the talks. I must digress here yet again by highlighting this point that keeps cropping up in beer discussions that both Rre Seretse and Rre Masire, like many politicians of today, believed erroneously that leadership of a nation was/is a matter of competition for turf between them and Dikgosi, ignoring altogether that there are people out there, whose wishes and aspirations stand alone for consideration and must always be taken on board. The same mentality is manifest in the way government has been run since 1966, and now grotesquely manifest in the attitude of Government towards the present industrial action – the people just do not matter for these political thugs.
(c) Botswana is a signatory to the African Charter and various United Nations international protocols, which place an obligation upon the Botswana Government to ensure that the people are, ruled in accordance with their culture, or rather laws of their free choice. These international instruments place an obligation upon Botswana to protect its people against colonialism, in all its manifestations, and to protect the people against rule or domination by foreign cultures. These obligations create corresponding rights of the citizen to be governed in accordance with their preferred ways of life, their culture. This right is called the right to self-determination and it has its origin in natural law and human rights common to all nations of this world, like the right to life. Despite these obligations and rights, the Botswana Government has done the opposite; and continues, quite in earnest, to promote the opposite through laws and policies. The constitution is the root foundation of this oppression of a people and their culture. It is a document written in a foreign language promoting foreign values at all levels. Consequently the constitution must necessarily be set aside, and shall so be set aside because we really have no choice if we are to have future for our children. Not only does it promote oppression of our indigenous ways, it also lays foundation for governance by gangster rule that is unaccountable to no one but the chiefs of the gang. It is called tyranny.
Now, this really is all that we as Bakgatla require to place before the Court. Whether we will succeed or not is a different issue for discussion another time. One thing for sure is that the case shall be launched and will go all the way to international Courts. We hear talk such as impossible. Well, our Kgosi Kgolo has dealt with that language in the past when he saved two prisoners from the gallows 6 hours before a scheduled hanging, when everyone else thought it was impossible and utterly crazy to achieve. Such former death row inmates are now free men: free from death row, and free out of prison itself. Impossible is not part of our vocabulary.
JUSTICE: Our High Court and its Court of Appeal are supposed to be Courts of justice. However, we have all now seen for ourselves that these Courts are in fact Courts of law, and not justice. They are Courts of colonial law “NO JUSTICE SHOULD COME AT PRICE”. Indeed the law they apply and promote is not the law of our forefathers but the law of the forefathers of the Romans and Dutch people, called Roman Dutch law, and the law passed by the vultures in parliament without any consultation with the people. The language and culture of these Courts is foreign as well as the quality of “justice” these Courts purport to deliver. There is no judicial independence. The judges are appointed by the same State president whose rule is under attack, whilst some of them judges have been personal lawyers of the same President and his family. The Judge president of the Court of Appeal is a former Attorney General of the same Government and former personal lawyer of the president. Your guess is mine whether there will be any justice, but one thing for sure is that there shall be justice from our Gods, our departed forefathers, who desire righteousness and freedom of their children from the yokes of colonialism. The hearts of the righteous will do it for us. Therefore it is hoped that by the time the case is launched, the justices of the Courts shall have attuned to the resonance of truth and justice and seen the need to liberate their children and future generations from the burden of colonialism disguised as western democracy. The entire nation of Botswana all stands to benefit from expelling the present colonial constitution. Development of a new constitution and transforming to a new order is not a difficult task, when you really think about it and desire change.
In conclusion, I would like to urge all Batswana to see this coming case by Bakgatla, as perhaps our only hope for salvation. We must urgently rid ourselves of the petty jealousies and envy that keep us divided and unfocussed. This division is exactly what keeps our oppressors one step ahead of us and thereby perpetuate the slave machine. I am truly pleased to learn that it is now dawning upon the workers of this country that they are modern slaves, just as Kgabo has always said. We are all modern slaves and will continue to be for so long as we chase individual interests, play politics and fail to focus on the root cause of all our problems ÔÇô colonialism and the colonial constitution. I urge the reader to revisit the articles I wrote in Sunday Standard last year about Kgabo’s radio interview on colonialism, for the reader to understand them in the context of the present developments. We must urgently get rid of this colonial constitution, and the Government of thugs that has thrived on it since Independence. I warn that if we bring in a new government under the same constitution, our problems will not end. This however does not mean that we should tolerate the present government. It must go now. This is the call we should all be making of Rre Ian Kgama and his cabinet of gangsters. We have had enough of them. Yes they are gangsters, and if anybody doubts this accusation, let us start first with declaration of assets/interests, then we will see exactly what we mean when we say they are gangsters, quite apart from the fact that the same government has been gunning down gangster style its own citizens, just as gangsters do: Indeed many of them, including the president himself, carry guns in their belts and or socks, just as gangsters do. They have been cheating and lying since 1966, and now, they spy and intimidate those who they perceive as threats, just as gangsters do. We as a nation must decide now whether we want to be ruled by gangsters or be ruled in accordance with the laws of our forefathers as directed by them in the National anthem and culture and as ordained in the holy books of the Bible and Quran.
When the Madibela Nkwe regiment graduated, Kgabo sounded this prophetic warning that “ngwana yo sa utlweng molao wa batsadi o utlwa wa manong.”
“A child who does not heed the laws of his forefathers will go astray on the laws of the vultures ÔÇô foreign laws.” I remind the reader of what President Ian Kgama said in his first few days in politics. He said parliament was a haven of vultures when members of parliament agitated for money and improved working conditions. The choices we make today will decide our fate as a nation.
“God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own created genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law. Let the sky and God be our limit and Eternity our measurement”. (Marcus Garvey)
“KE NAKO !”
