A ROYAL HUNT

FIVE months since Mababe Zokotsama Community Development Trust secretly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a local safari company, African Field Sports (AFS), the small community of Mababe remains divided.

As reported in The Voice last week, the Trust had been given a licence to hunt 20 elephants, with the MOU - which was actually signed before the trust received their elephant quota - agreeing for the hunting rights to go exclusively to AFS.

At the centre of the conflict is the Trust’s board, Village Development Committee and the village tribal leader, Kgosi Kgosikemontle Kebuelemang.

A task force appointed by Vice President, Slumber Tsogwane, released its findings last week, attributing much of the division to Kebuelemang.

In this interview, the under fire royal hits back and gives his side of the story to FRANCINAH BAAITSE-MMANA.

Thank you for your time, Kgosi. Kindly clear the dust surrounding the allegations levelled against you by the task force. Apparently you have been blamed for causing division within the village and are refusing to cooperate with the Trust.

This is not true. If it were so, I would not have previously written a letter to the board encouraging them to work well with dikgosi, Member of Parliament, the Councillor and the Village Development Committee. The board has never invited us to their meetings despite the Kgosi being an ex-officio member of the board.

Is it true that you have been influencing the board to take wrong decisions?

It would have been nice if these accusations were backed by examples. If one makes such allegations, then there has to be proof. Even the task force failed to put such evidence in the report. This is because the task force was used as a clever tool by perpetrators to launder the shady deal and under-the-table agreement in the form of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with African Field Sports.

The task force was used to clean the maladministration and give it some sort of legitimacy. The bottom line of the report was to give me a bad name, intimidate and silence me.