Bame Piet
25 March 2008
The MP for Gaborone West South, Robert Molefhabangwe has condemned efforts to reform the chieftainship saying the institution might as well be abolished if the proposed changes are anything to go by.
He slammed the Bogosi (Chieftainship) Bill in Parliament last week on the grounds that what it describes as the functions of Kgosi (chief) are totally different from those in the Setswana custom. He said that instead of coming up with the bill, it is better to do away with Bogosi because the proposed law will be worse. He said the bill gives the minister all the powers over tribes. He warned that this has the potential to divide the nation especially tribes who still believe in the chieftainships and its powers. He cited a section of the bill that gives the minister powers to suspend a chief deemed to be insurbordinate and appoint a deputy chief of his choice even if the tribe has a different view. He said that in the Central District, they know who their chief is and if it happens that one morning he is told that someone has replaced him, he would kill the new chief and the minister who appointed him. "I would start with the new chief and then the minister who appointed him," he warned.
Molefhabangwe said that the system of elected chiefs should be abolished with immediate effect as it causes confusion. He said that each and every tribe knows who their chief is but some of the elected chiefs are leaders in organisations that are trying to encourage tribalism in Botswana.
He opposed provisions in the bill prescribing the retirement age of chiefs saying it is not Setswana custom to tell a chief to retire and appoint his son in his place. He said retirement should be voluntary for the chiefs. He warned that successors who take over after forced retirement risk going mad. "It has never happened anywhere in this country where a chief's son was appointed when his father is still alive.
We have never seen any Kgotla where there are two leopard skins for chiefs. Chiefs are buried with their leopard skins and they don't leave them behind to anybody," he explained. "Ba tsile go hema botlhe dikgosi tse le tla a di apesang letlalo bo Rraabone ba santse ba tshela (Those chiefs you appoint while their fathers are still alive are all going to go mad)," he warned.
Molefhabangwe lamented that politicians are interfering with Bogosi to the extent that they want to give themselves more powers than the people.
However, Assistant Minister of Local Government, Ambrose Masalila, said that he totally supports the bill. Before Masalila went into details, the MP for Gaborone North, Keletso Rakhudu, interrupted saying he was uncomfortable with the Assistant Minister's contribution. He said it would have been better if Masalila waited for other MPs to comment on the bill before him since he is the one who brought it to Parliament. But the Deputy Speaker, Gladys Kokorwe, quashed the argument saying the Assistant Minister was speaking in his capacity as the MP and not as the presenter of the bill. She said that this was a normal practice because Masalila was speaking on behalf of his constituents.
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