Moshupa tribal leaders tackle students’ violence
Moshupa tribal authorities have called for a gathering of the whole village on October 10th to discuss the tide of terror that has engulfed students of Moshupa and Thamaga Secondary Schools.
Kgosi Oscar Mosielele will address his subjects. He told Botswana Guardian this week that the Monday meeting is intended to solicit the community’s input to try and find a common solution to the problem. “We have talked about this here and there but we thought it was time we addressed the issue holistically with the community who are in any case the parents of these children,” Kgosi Mosielele said.
The whole village, including all government officers in the sub-district and the school heads are expected to attend the gathering to discuss and map a way forward in an attempt to deal with the violence that has engulfed Moshupa and Thamaga secondary school students.
Just recently some Moshupa secondary school students were admitted in the village hospital following a brutal attack at the hands of Thamaga students. This behaviour has shocked villagers and authorities alike since Moshupa and Thamaga are basically one ethnic people.
Thamaga village in the Kweneng district was only founded in 1935 when the tribe split into two from Moshupa in the Ngwaketse district. That was when the BaNgwaketse sovereign, Bathoen II instructed his subjects to immediately set up a “buffer” between the two groups at a place that is today known as ‘Goo- Kodisa,’ which in addition to Pitseng and Tshwaane, was officially recognised as a settlement by president Ian Khama a few years ago.
A native of Moshupa, Naledi Victor Mosiga insists that the social upheavals in the village are symptomatic of a bigger problem, whose origins can be traced to the “improper leadership” of the BaKgatla baga Mmanaana. “Until government restores the legitimate royal lineage and does away with regency these upheavals will never cease,” he told this publication in Moshupa recently.
Mosiga believes that today’s youth are yearning for a “new type of tribal leadership,” one that is responsive to the adversities they struggle with daily and not a judgemental leadership that singles them out for blame for the village’s crises, when they (leadership) are the real problem.
Mosiga has addressed both president Festus Mogae during a Kgotla meeting in Moshupa in 2006 as well as president Ian Khama at Goo-Kodisa. In both occasions he presented the two leaders with a petition concerning the chieftainship of the BaKgatla baga Mmanaana in Moshiupa and Thamaga in which he called for the restoration of the “legitimate” royal line, for which he says he sits at the apex.
He told Botswana Guardian that the October 10th meeting will not produce any meaningful results because the leaders know what the real problems are but are deliberately avoiding them. “They know that the real problem is their presence at the Kgotla; even religious leaders and diviners have made this manifest to them, but they ignore the calls because they are looking after their self-interests,” he said.
But Kgosi Mosielele dismissed Mosiga’s assertions as “hallucinations” and rantings of a “mad man.” Kgosi percent is baffled by Mosiga’s claim to royalty because in his opinion the man is just a “commoner.” Kgosi Mosielele said he had once admonished Mosiga when he publicly declared himself a Kgosi during President Khama’s meeting at Goo-Kodisa.
He promised to also address Mosiga’s claims to chieftaincy during the Monday meeting in order to put the matter to rest. Mosiga traces his royal lineage to Kgatla, the younger brother of Mosetlha and elder brother of Kgafela, Mocha and Kau, the progenitors of the branches of BaKgatla that are settled throughout South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. He says his mission is to bring these groups together into a cohesive unit and return the tribe its honour.
