- Courts have consistently denied family’s wish to bury Father in CKGR
- Boko recently undertook to grant family its wish if elected
- Family has racked up morgue debts in excess of P1m over nearly 3 years
SESUPO RANTSIMAKO
The Gaoberekwe family has begun engagements with the Office of the President (OP) about its wish to bury their father, MoSarwa tribesman Gaoberekwe Pitseng, inside the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve (CKGR) because it is the ancestral home.
Pitseng’s body has been lying in the morgue for nearly three years after the government and the High Court denied the family’s request to bury him in the CKGR.
According to the spokesperson of the family, Moeti Smith, they are engaging with the OP because President Duma Boko undertook to grant the Gaoberekwe family permission to bury Pitseng in the CKGR in presidential debates that preceded the recent general elections.
Since December 2021
“We have written to the OP requesting to bury our father in his ancestral land because that was his wish,” Smith said in an interview.
“We took the decision to engage the OP following the pledge made by the President and we await his response,”
The body of Pitseng has been lying at Joyce Funeral Parlour since December 2021 after the government barred the family from burying him in the CKGR. The family has accumulated debts of P1,239,750 00 by keeping the body in the morgue.
Court ruling
The controversy began when Gantsi District Council successfully took the family of the deceased to the High Court to seek an order to bury Pitseng at New Xade, which was contrary to his express wish before he died.
The argument of the council was that the late Pitseng’s enrolment under its social welfare programme made him a resident of New Xade and therefore New Xade was the right place for his burial.
However, the family refused to collect the body from the morgue for burial at New Xade, insisting on burying Pitseng inside the CKGR as his ancestral home.
The family took the matter to the Court of Appeal where the initial order was upheld. Since then, the family has been trying to take the matter up with the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.