Recent burial of woman in CKGR stirs controversy

 

Selinah SetobaPhuduhudu was buried in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) because that is where she lived, Gantsi District Council Chairperson, Jefferson Tibi confirmed this week.

SetobaPhuduhudu’s burial has rubbed some the wrong way, questions are being asked as to why she was buried in CKGR when government has flatly refused to bury Pitseng Gaoberekwe in CKGR. The old man died in 2021 and to date, he has not been buried because his family believes that his grave should be in CKGR and nowhere else.

When the Gaoberekwe saga escalated to the courts of law, government provided a list of 189 people who have the right to claim CKGR as their ancestral land and deserve to be buried there.

The list came into existence as a result of the 2006 High Court judgement which concluded that the relocation of Basarwa from the CKGR was illegal. All Basarwa who had challenged their relocation from CKGR were allowed to return to the game reserve.

And this is how the Gaoberekwe family lost their case. The old man was not part of the list.

According to Smith Moeti, family spokesperson of the Gaoberekwe family, the list they have does not have the names of Selinah SetobaPhuduhudu and this suggests to them that just like their father, government was not supposed to allow her remains to be buried in CKGR.

“SetobaPhuduhudu was living in CKGR, council had been assisting her as a person of that area, she fell sick and was taken from CKGR to the hospital. When she died, it was only right that she be returned to CKGR for burial,” Tibi said, adding that the list which was provided during the case of Gaoberekwe was not exhaustive.

“There are many people who are not on that list but are people of CKGR, it does not mean that if her name is missing on that list, she is not a person of CKGR. The family of Gaoberekwe know this, the old man was from New Xade and was benefiting from government programes as a person of New Xade,” he said.

Moeti said they had long told government that the list is not exhaustive, and they refused to listen, it was now strange that the same government is now agreeing that the list is not complete when they told them that if one is not on the list, they cannot claim CKGR as their ancestral land.