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Batlhaping Ba Ga Mothibi might be incorporated into N. Cape

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The Traditional community of Batlhaping Ba Ga Mothibi in the North West, could soon be incorporated into the Northern Cape.

The community’s quest started way back in 1995, during the Khehla Shubane Commission of Inquiry and that was unsuccessful.

Ba Ga Mothibi community comprises 15 villages. Lerato Taeng a mother of three lives at Shaleng Village. In 2010, her mother, was struck by a car and rushed to the nearest hospital at Hartswater, in the Northern Cape.

But instead of being treated, the hospital transferred her to Taung hospital in the North West, where she died. She is eager for incorporation into the Northern Cape.

“At Taung they pull out my mother’s teeth. But what I hear from people, who are diabetic, is that they didn’t have to lose more blood. But my mother did loose a lot of blood and she died.”

The Ba Ga Mothibi community is optimistic about their long awaited incorporation into the Northern Cape.

In November last year, the government gazette, indicated the state was considering their request. The community, insist 90 % of the locals, work in the Northern Cape.

Most earn their living in the mines or the agricultural sector. The local traditional leadership, supports incorporation into the Northern Cape.

“These are my people. I understand the frustrations they going through. But also on the side of Bogosi, our chieftaincy, we’re the descendants of Kgosi Galeshewe. Well known in the NC province, so we feel we’ve been detached from our heritage province,” says Kgosi Ponatshego Mothibi  of Batlhaping Ba Ga Mothibi.

The Northern Cape and North West legislatures, are co-operating: “It’s quite a big community. So we’re here to solicit their views so that we speed up the process, of the demarcations, so that very soon it’s tabled in the parly, and that the current demarcations are sent back so that they become part of the Northern Cape province.”

But villagers have mixed views on the matter.

“They must fix Northern Cape first. Then they can say we re-demarcate there,” says  community member, Ofentse Mothibi.

“If in our country, we can be citizens of all provinces and get services anywhere in South Africa, it will be the best,” says another community member, Roger Mongale.

But while the two provinces work on incorporation. Local villagers continue to be denied services, simply because they belong to the wrong province.

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