Lesapo le, le mo matsogong a ga mang? By Uriel Nangu

It was a Grand occasion, well attended and promising a brighter future for everyone involved. People from all walks of life came in numbers, listened as speakers and speakers exchanged news and information about this “Discovery” in the land, THERE’S A HUGE DEPOSIT OF PLATINUM IN THE BAKUBUNG/LEDIG AREA! “Wow! That’s exciting!” “There will be job creation right here in our community! On top of that, we are going to share in this wealth!” Everybody was excited, when the meeting was dismissed, you could see it in the people’s faces that, THEY were already Rich! Or, am I right?

Something else happened behind the scenes. As in any festive occasion for Africans, there should be slaughtering of cows or something. Now, even dogs were there to take part in that portion of the celebration. Amongst the organizers, some were so generous in such that they decided that, dogs should not just get the bones, they must get the whole hind-quarter (Serope sa kgomo) Wow! That was very generous of them, besides, there was a lot of meat where it came from, no one could complain about this portion. The dogs were so excited, jumping around playing joyfully, until a decision was taken to let the dogs take control of this meat. All hell broke loose! The excitement and joy turned into a fierce battle. Who was going to control the distribution of the meat and what’s in it for him. Some dogs tried to intervene, but the fighting didn't stop, instead it got so ugly such that there were some dogs killed! Throughout this whole commotion, the man who was given the task to give the meat to the dogs was watching as they fought so fiercely. Meanwhile, he kept cutting chunks to make biltong (a itshigela segwapa) for himself. As the in-fighting subsided, he dangled the meat and the fight would ensue. He continued doing this until the bone was left dry. All the juicy fatty meat was in his possession. They fought for a dry bone! They died for a dry bone! Enemies were created for a dry bone! In the end, they watched helplessly as the man enjoyed the now his Segwapa!

Bakubung, what am I saying? I’m in no way implying that the Bakubung are anything related to dogs. I’m just painting a picture to make us understand who the Master is. Wesizwe, which started out with about 30% black interest, currently has black empowerment shareholding of 17% (Mining Weekly, 14 July 2011, http://tinyurl.com/67uwvt2) The Bakubung community was set to be one of the richest tribe in Africa and there were, and I still hope and pray, there is still, prospects of major job creation for the community. 


It's so sad that the community has been marred by in-fighting, we have seen things that were never heard of by the founders of this peaceful tribe. Fingers are pointed at each other; people are at each other’s throats. There are court battles about chieftaincy, something we never heard of as Africans, for chieftaincy battle to be taken to courts of law. There are death threats making rounds in the community. Some people had their houses burnt. People are living in fear in their homes. We have become newsmakers for wrong reasons. (http://tinyurl.com/6uwp3d7) The peace that prevailed few decades ago is gone. Ledig has turned into being like a taxi industry, where problems are sorted by the barrel of the gun. 


While all this fighting continues, ask yourself, Lesapo le, le mo matsogong a ga mang? When the project started, we had our local representatives in the Board of Directors. Today, not even one is there. (See Wesizwe Website) Go diragetseng? When the project started, we had a sizeable chunk in Wesizwe. That has changed dramatically, re jelwe segwapa! It is said this was because of a funding from a certain financial institution and certain clauses were that they will take those shares in the event we can’t pay back the loan. My question is, go tlile jang gore re adimiwe madi ka selo se eleng sa rona? How and who agreed to such absurd clauses? What will happen at the end? Who is looking after our interest? For how long are we going to fight among ourselves?

Mokubung, o se ke wa makala fa re feleletsa re le babogedi fa ditshaba dija khumo ya rona!