Now that the apex court, Botswana’s Court of Appeal (CoA) has upheld the decision of a lower court that Forest Hill 9-KO indeed belongs to the Balete tribe, assumption is that the land dispute, which has been raging on for about two decades, is now over.

The acrimony that seemingly characterised the relationship between the Malete Land Board on behalf of the Botswana government and Kgosi Mosadi Seboko and the tribe, should now be water under the bridge as the tribe has finally gotten what it has been fighting for - the land.

Kgosi Mosadi has articulated an instance upon which she was allegedly summoned to the State House by the Head of State, Mokgweetsi Masisi where the former claimed she was requested to surrender the piece of Balete land to the State and the tribe would be rewarded with the same land at a later stage. On behalf of the tribe, Kgosi Mosadi claimed that she rejected the offer from the highest office in the land as the matter was already before the CoA. Kgosi Mosadi was reportedly worried at the tone of the President whose actions suggested a man who wanted to interfere with the judicial processes.

One of the immediate casualties of the land dispute is that the relationship between Kgosi Mosadi as the face of the tribe and President Masisi as the head of government has reached its lowest ebb.

The two parties should genuinely bury the hatchet and ensure that there are no more wrangles as the CoA has dealt with what caused a rift between the parties.

It is disheartening, however, to note that Kgosi Mosadi who has been a member of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) found her PAP membership terminated a few days after Balete won the case against the government. What a coincidence! If the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP)-dominated National Assembly voted Kgosi Mosadi out this week on the basis that she was not ‘cooperating’ with the President Masisi-led government, then that will be crazy. The BDP legislators need to be told that in a democracy that they claim Botswana is, holding differences of opinion should never be misconstrued for adversity.

A piece of advice to the Balete tribe is that they should hit the ground running and allow the Ga-Malete Development Trust to convert the farm to good use and see their dream of commercialising the land coming to fruition. Concentrating on animosity will be a waste of time as time indeed flies.

Balete should also be reminded that it is time that they develop the farm they acquired in 1925 as without meaningful developments that will benefit the masses, their victory will be hollow.