The Gaborone High Court will on 12 December hand down judgment in the controversial Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) burial case in which Lesiame Gaoberekwe seeks to bury his father Pitseng Gaoberekwe in the CKGR.

Gaoberekwe’s remains have been lying in the mortuary at Gantsi Hospital since mid-December 2021 pending the finalisation of the mammoth court matter that was thrown out of the High Court last year and later filed before the Court of Appeal in Gaborone earlier this year.

The deceased’s family, who are currently residing in New Xade, had informed the court that their father’s last wish was for him to be buried at CKGR rather than New Xade because he had lived his entire life at the reserve. In the past instalment of the case, Government attorneys argued that Basarwa would not be treated with kid gloves by virtue of their tribe neither would they be given the right to access the CKGR without the necessary permits.

Gaoberekwe recently argued that one of the misconceptions regarding indigenous peoples is that to advocate for the recognition and protection of their rights would be to give special rights to some ethnic groups over and above the rights of all other groups within a state but that is not the case. He emphasised that the case is more linked to their culture and spirituality than it is to political rights. “We are not asking for special rights but just permission to bury our father where he lived all of his life. The issue here is that certain marginalised groups are discriminated in particular ways because of their particular way of life and marginalised position.

“This is a form of discrimination which other tribes are not subjected to (sic).” He reiterated that it is legitimate for marginalised groups to call for the protection of their rights in order to alleviate this particular form of discrimination.

Regardless of how the ruling goes, the high profile case will go down in history as one of those that challenged government’s lax attitude towards the rights of indigenous tribes.

Perhaps it will even influence policy makers to formulate indigenous land rights policies. Currently, it remains a struggle for indigenous people in Botswana to remain on their land because the land has been categorised as State land, and people living in so-called protected areas are now under constant

threat of being relocated.

Others don’t have access to their ancestral land or there are no resources such as water availed. Over the years, the lives of Basarwa, have been characterised by marginalisation, dispossession, harassment, poverty and neglect, which have attracted the glare of human rights activists and the international community who perceive this as a violation of the rights of minority tribes.