Gasebalwe Seretse to be installed Pilikwe chief

Author, former journalist and pastor Gasebalwe Seretse will be installed the chief of Pilikwe village, Mahalapye East next year April. Gasebalwe told Botswana Guardian this week that preparations are ongoing for the event that is expected to attract all Magosi from GammaNgwato.

He said the main focus is going to be resuscitating BammaNgwato Development Association, a co-operative agricultural scheme which he says was the lifeline for the residents. He also intends to bring in facilities such as museums and libraries to Pilikwe.

But above all, he wants to continue Tshekedi Khama’s legacy. “He achieved a lot of things in a short period of time,” he says. Pilikwe was founded in 1952 by one of the foremost diKgosi in the country, Tshekedi Khama and 43 senior Ngwato leaders who have been referred to by some authors as the ‘cream of the crop’ of their era in GammaNgwato, this after the fallout with the Seretse Khama camp that remained in Serowe.

Once he and fellow-founders of Pilikwe had settled in the village, they set about carrying out major development projects. Pilikwe Primary School became one of the first schools in the region and many people from the villages of Lecheng and Mhalapitsa among other villages did their primary education in the village.

While before his exile from Serowe, Tshekedi had mainly used regimental labour to carry out projects, the regent had employed Kebautlwe and Keakelwe Kgakge, who were duly paid for their services, to build the school with money for the project sourced from BammaNgwato coffers and the regent himself.

During the times of Tshekedi Khama, Pilikwe was one of the few villages in the whole country that could boast of clean water supply, a health facility, a fully functional primary school, a cooperative agricultural farm and a furniture factory run by the Tshoagongs.