I am not after Kgafela’s throne - Mosiga

To some, Naledi Victor Remogae Mosiga is an enigma, to others he is the sovereign of all baKgatla tribespeople according to prophecy handed down through the ages.He recently shook many vestiges of authority – in local and central government- to the core when he staked a claim to baKgatla throne.

Some may have misunderstood him to mean he was going to depose baKgatla Chiefs in their different territories. But not so, says the man, who is convinced – after a careful study of his ancestry- that he is the chosen saviour not only of the baKgatla tribes but also of mankind in general. “Some people think I want Kgosi Kgafela Kgafela’s throne. This is absolutely false,” he told this newspaper in Moshupa. “In fact I want Kgafela to come back (from exile in South Africa). I am not against him. I don’t want to be installed in Mochudi. I have to be installed here in Moshupa so that baKgatla ba Mmanaana may gain their proper status as the senior tribe.

This is exactly what Kgosi Linchwe II told baKgatla during a kgotla meeting in Mochudi in 2004 to discuss baKgatla heritage (ditso tsa baKgatla),” he explains. He is adamant that Kgosi Kgafela must return to Botswana and assume his throne as Kgosikgolo ya baKgatla baga Kgafela. “That is precisely why I took the trouble to travel to Moruleng on the 2nd September 2013 to look for Kgosi Kgafela so that I could help him come back as well as reconcile him with the government of Botswana,” he says. “It’s all because I know the truth. I’m the only one that can restore him, not the Commission that was set up.”

At that meeting in Moruleng, he was accompanied by a respected moKgatla elder and historian, Rre Morotsi Kalane. They met Kgosi Nyalala Molefe Pilane and his diKgosana, Tlhageng Pilane and Kautlwane Pilane. After Mosiga had introduced himself and the purpose of his visit, the two diKgosana were shocked to hear Kgosi Nyalala Pilane admit that Mosiga is the eldest in the baKgatla royal lineage and that he should have installed Kgosi Kgafela in 2008 just like Kgosi Linchwe had said. In fact Kgosi Nyalala blamed Mosiga for the predicament that had befallen Kgafela. But Mosiga returned the favour telling Kgosi Nyalala  that he should bear the blame because he was present at Kgosi Linchwe’s meeting in 2004 but had ignored the instruction and instead gone ahead and installed Kgosi Kgafela in Mosiga’s absence when he knew the catastrophic effects this would have. In a telephone interview with Kgosana Kautlwane on 16th September 2015, he told this reporter that he remembered that meeting.

“Yes I recall that meeting, but the bogosi in Moruleng is junior, it is best you ask those in Mochudi,” he said. Asked about the second split of baKgatla inMoruleng (Saulspoort) that produced the baKgatla of Kgatla; baKgatla of Kgafela; baKgatla of MmaKau and baKgatla of Mocha, he said that those events belonged in an ancient time and that those who could vouch for them had long passed on. However, when interviewed at his home in Phaphane ward in Mochudi on 11th August 2015 to confirm or deny the contents of the meeting between Mosiga and Kgosi Nyalala Pilane, Kalane said it was true. He also remembered that Kgosi Nyalala had invited them (Mosiga and Kalane) to come back so he could show them the exact spot (tree) where Kgatla had tied the naana (black and white) calf the night he escaped from his younger brothers –Kgafela, Kau and Mocha- who had conspired to kill him.

As if that was not enough, Mosiga says he has also engaged Kgosi Segale (the current regent of baKgatla ba Kgafela) on the 16th October 2014 on the whereabouts of Kgafela. Although he says Kgosi Segale was hostile towards him, he nonetheless made it clear that Kgafela would eventually return and rule over his people both in Mochudi and Moruleng because he is the Kgosikgolo of baKgatla baga Kgafela. Mosiga says it is incumbent on all baKgatla diKgosi to respect his calling, as affirmed by Kgosi Linchwe, that he has a higher and exclusive calling to not only unite baKgatla tribes but also pray for rains and act as the custodian of all baKgatla customs and traditions, by performing sacred rituals at their respective diKgaotla. “I am the legitimate Kgosikgolo ya baKgatla, this title is reserved for me only. I am Kgafela’s elder,” he says. A spirit medium and keeper of baKgatla baga Kgafela’s ‘sacred truths’ Mme Pulane Sello confirmed in an interview on August 11th 2015 in Mochudi that Kgosi Kgafela is aware of Mosiga’s lineage. She said that Kgosi Kgafela has admitted that Mosiga is his elder but that he did not know this when he was installed in 2008 because his elders had not told him.

Pulane was shown in a vision that “a King would be coming to the village the next day” the first time he met Mosiga in 2011. She tells this reporter that indeed Mosiga is descended from a great King of baKgatla and that immense power, that seeks release, resides in him. “He is a King. I found out during our travels in Bopedi when he had to get to a scared ancestral place where he was to be anointed for his mission,” she says. Mosiga dares anyone doubting his legitimacy to investigate why both Kgosi Linchwe and Kgosi Seepapitso II had singled out his name for mention and not any other name in the baKgatla tribes? During the August 20th 2004 Kgotla meeting in Mochudi, Kgosi Linchwe is said to have told baKgatla that they (royal family) have been instructed by baKgatla ancestors to go and look for Mosiga of Kgatla lineage in Moshupa because he is the only one invested with authority to perform sacred baKgatla customary rituals such as rain making among others. And according to another close relative of the Mochudi royal family, Moatshe Dintwe, who chaired the committee that has been lobbying for Kgafela’s return, which efforts culminated in the institution of the Malope Commission by President Ian Kgama – Kgosi Seepapitso once summoned him from Lentswe le Moriti to Washington DC, USA, to give him a “special message” for Kgosi Mmusi Pilane who was very sick and about to die.

The message, said Dintwe in an interview at his house in Gaborone on 10th August 2015, was that he (Dintwe) must go and find a man by the name of Mosiga from Kgatla and take him to Kgosi Mmusi Pilane. Kgosi Seepapitso told Ditwe in Washington; “Gona le monna o bitswa Mosiga kewa garona waga Kgatla, ke ene dilo tsotlhe tse dintsi o di tshotse.” Indeed on his return from USA, Ditwe embarked on the search for Mosiga. He travelled to Moshupa on July 15th 2005 but failed to locate Mosiga. On hindsight Naledi Mosiga reckons that Dintwe may have been misdirected by diKgosana that head the wards in Moshupa because they don’t want his true identity to be known. But as is often said, man proposes, God disposes, Rre Dintwe would eventually meet Naledi Mosiga at Kgosi Mmusi Pilane’s yard in Mochudi one fateful rainy day. On seeing Mosiga during this recent interview, Dintwe, who confesses that he has laboured to record baKgatla’s “true history” from the time of Rue (misnamed Loe) and was assigned this special task in 1949, makes a confession: “Kene ka bolelela Nathan (Kgabi) maloba gore mmega dikgang mongwe orile o batla go kwala ka game, mme kene kamo raya kare fa a tla otlaabo a ntsholetse karabo ya mokwalo kante ee matlho mabedi.” During this interview, this reporter was accompanied by Mosiga. Dintwe then made a startling prediction: Dilo di tshwanetse kego wela, mme dika wetswa ke baKgatla. Dipula ditshwanetse kego na mme dika neswa ke baKgatla,”- an affirmation of the special place that baKgatla tribespeople hold in the affairs of humankind. Again this reporter went to interview Kgosi Malope of baNgwaketse at Kanye Kgotla on September 18th 2015 regarding what his Commission had recommended with respect to Kgosi Kgafela’s return and whether he had managed to build bridges between the tribe and baKgatla ba Kgafela in Mochudi.

Kgosi Malope would not be drawn into discussing the contents of his report, which he said, he has already submitted to President Ian Khama. Rather, he said the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Slumber Tsogwane was better placed to answer these questions. But then, he also expressed surprise at suggestions that Kgosi Seepaptiso had while Ambassador to America once sent for someone to relay a message to Kgosi Mmusi Pilane in Mochudi, wondering what business Kgsoi Seepapitso would have with baKgatla. However, Kgosi Malope confirmed meeting Mosiga in Mochudi on 18th November 2014 when his Commission had gone to brief baKgatla about their work and Kgafela’s stay in South Africa.

He said that Mosiga had asked to make a presentation before his Commission but that he would not allow him but instead requested him to come and see him in Kanye, which he did not honour. Visits to minister Tsogwane’s office as well as numerous phone calls to his private secretary, failed to produce the minister. However, there is a feeling of optimism among sections of baKgatla that Kgosi Kgafela is about to return, whilst some in government are adamant that Kgafela is a fugitive and that if he dares to enter this country, “he will immediately be arrested to stand trial for some of his outstanding crimes,” such as escaping from lawful custody. On the other hand, a source close to baKgatla royalty said that Kgafela was “sorting out” his South African citizenship so that he could return to Botswana.

Botswana does not recognise dual citizenship. As for Mosiga, he is adamant that his mission is divinely ordained that the ability he has is not and cannot be trained for. “It’s an innate ability that one is born with,” he says. He is inspired by the maxim, “Kgosi ke Kgosi ka batho’ to give these interviews so that “The nation can know the truth,” and make informed decisions, as opposed to being kept in the dark. “I am preparing myself for the role to gather baKgatla tribes that were scattered during the early wars of conquest. And I can only perform these tasks, if I have access to a kgotla that is why I must be installed in Moshupa.” Another Seer and Bishop of St. Paul Apostolic Church in Mmankgodi, Mme Disebo Leshetla confirms that Mosiga is a “King.” She says he was brought to her by Pastor Moruakgomo Ketsile of St. Apostolic Church for consultation. “After a long three hours, the first time I had ever taken this long on a single client, a voice told me that he is King and that this calling is tormenting him. The voice said that his major weakness was that he has not been anointed yet.

You know that Biblical Kings, like Saul and David were anointed by the prophet Samuel. In the same way I was told that Mosiga has to be anointed and I was shown the place where this has to be done,” she said in an interview.
 It was after this encounter in 2011 that Mosiga met Pulane and eventually travelled together to Bopedi for the sacred rituals. Yet there was also the testimony of the great Zulu Shaman, Seer, philosopher and writer, Sanusi Credo Mutwa who attested to Mosiga’s divinity. He admitted in a 2003 interview with this reporter when he had invited some American scientists to come and meet Mosiga (then going by the name Naledi Monageng), that he had been shown Naledi in a vision back in 1945 way before Naledi was born (1957) that there would come one greater and mightier. And to be true, it was Credo Mutwa who cleared the mist on the name Mosiga and traced it to Mozinga- the son of an ancient Zulu King, who would go on to found the baKgatla tribe. Yet still to others, Naledi is a ‘lunatic’ with an obsession for royalty. One headman in Moshupa wondered how he could “exalt” himself above Loso and Lotlhatshane, who are senior to Molefi, Naledi’s father. But Naledi Mosiga dismissed his “rantings,” as motivated by a deep-seated hatred and jealousy.

Mosiga traces his ancestry from Kgosi Matshego, who sired Mosetlha (daughter), Kgatla, Kgafela, Kau and Mocha. He is the son of Motshubelwa, the son of Motladiile Mosiga. Again some of the late Chiefs of the baNgwaketse knew during their lifetimes that a King would emerge in future that would unite all baKgatla tribespeople in Botswana and South Africa. They were even warned to let his people go, if he came looking for them during their reign. One such Chief, according to Mosiga was Kgosi Bathoen II. Just like his father had told him, Bathoen II is said to have informed his son, Kgosi Seepapitso II about the coming of Kgosi Mosiga and requested him to not refuse with the baKgatla tribespeople in Ngwaketse if he asked for them. Mosiga says that the late Kgosi Seepapitso first heard him speak in public at a kgotla meeting in 2006 when he handed a petition letter to then President Festus Mogae pertaining to the plight of the baKgatla ba Mmanaana in Moshupa and Thamaga. Mosiga’s bone of contention then, which he harbours to this day, was the “buffer zone” euphemistically referred to as a borderline separating baKgatla of Thamaga and baKgatla of Moshupa.

The place is called Goo- Kodisa. It was deliberately created by Kgosi Bathoen I to keep watch over baKgatla when they revolted against his demands for payment of tax and split, with one group remaining in Moshupa and the other going to Thamaga. Mosiga is annoyed by the “artificial border”, which cuts the tribe in half saying it is designing to obliterate baKgatla culture and to deny them their right to unite. Thamaga falls under Kweneng District while Moshupa falls under Ngwaketse!