Ephraim Keoreng
3 October 2008
Botswana's Kora nominees Dikakapa traditional group of were robbed of the truck bearing their sound equipment in Johannesburg last weekend.
The group had been invited by the Botswana consulate to perform at Botswana's 42nd independence anniversary celebrations.
In an interview with Mmegi, a visibly shaken Moagi Lekone of Dikakapa said that they arrived in South Africa on a Thursday night of September 25 and performed at the event the next day before the consul-general's invited guests. They retired to their Formula One hotel. The next morning they were shocked to see their truck moving out of the parking lot as they were having breakfast in the dinning room."We chased it and as we did so, three sedans came out and flanked the truck as it drove away. Their occupants saw us closing in on them so they blocked the road and pointed guns at us. There were about six or seven of them. We reversed in a zig-zag motion to make it difficult for them to hit us," said Lekone.
Lekone said that they reported the incident at a local police station where they were told it would be difficult to locate the truck, as it had no tracking device.
Lekone said that inside the truck, which is valued at P70, 000, they had newly bought a sound system worth P300, 000.
"We had just played with it for the first time at the Johannesburg event. Even our attire was in the vehicle. One of our members, Donald Kgwadi, known as Dragon, had his driver's licence, credit cards, passport and other important documents in the truck as well. It is a big setback," he said. He said that they had never taken the truck on trips outside Botswana before and had only done so because the consulate had pleaded with them "to bring the truck so they could use the sound equipment" at the event.
Botswana consulate-general Mabotho Matsheka confirmed in an interview from Johannesburg that her office had invited the group to play at the Botswana independence celebrations. When asked if her office would consider refunding the group, she said that they would report the incident to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Gaborone "to see what can be done in that regard".
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