Botwana: Bakgatla Paramount Chief Kgafela sues newspaper editors and journalists for contempt of court

The traditional leader of Bakgatla tribe Kgosi-Kgolo Kgafela has sued several media houses accusing them of contempt of court in the same legal suit in which he seeks the court to punish the Family of God (FOG) and the Evangelical Fellowship of Botswana (EFB).

Kgafela accuses the media houses that covered the five criminal charges relating to floggings of members of the church by his regiments saying they distorted the facts. He accuses the interviewees who are members of the FOG and EFB respectively. Using the same brush Kgafela paints the private newspaper editors and their journalists of misrepresenting an interim order that Justice David Newsman made in an urgent application filed by the Family of God. He alleges that the Echo, Mmegi and the Sunday Standard misrepresented the provisional order in their reports. 

 

At Mmegi newsroom, he mentions Gideon Nkala the Editor, Dan Moabi a columnist, reporters Greg Kelebonye and Lekopanye Mooketsi and a cartoonist Billy Chiepe. He sites Chiepe’s cartoons as abusive and in contempt of court, while Moabi is singled out for allegedly reporting falsely about the interim order. “This is the type where this court must send its perpetrators to jail”, reads part of Kgafela’s court application. 

 

The Sunday Standard editor Outsa Mokone, reporters Morula Morula, Godfrey Ganetsang and Oliver Modise are accused of fuelling tension between the tribe and the church. However Modise is not cited in the lawsuit.

 

The editor of another weekly, Echo newspaper, Tomeletso Sereetsi and reporters Kaomboni Kanani and Tsaone Basimanebotlhe were not spared. The Echo is also accused of publishing what Kgafela says is a private letter he wrote to court seeking an amicable solution to the impasse between him and the church.  He accuses the media of causing him embarrassment.  

 

Kgafela claims that his traditional leadership broadens beyond the borders of Botswana into South Africa, and said his adversaries in South Africa are “already taking advantage of the image portrayed by these false reporting.”

 

MISA Position

 

Some media houses were still seeking legal advice by the time of writing this alert, but MISA-Botswana will closely follow this matter. Our position is that journalists should not be used as a smoke screen. Our view is that the case before the courts which is about alleged abuse of authority by the Kgatleng traditional leadership is newsworthy and journalists should be free to report on the issue. //End//

 

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Reagan Malumo

Programme Specialist: Media Freedom Monitoring and Research

Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Regional Secretariat

21 Johann Albrecht St

Private Bag 13386

Windhoek

Namibia

Phone: +264 61 232 975

Fax: +264 61 248 016

Mobile: +264 81 311 2626

Official Email: reagan@misa.org

Private Email: reagan32002@yahoo.com

 

- June 1, 2010 by MISA

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Source: www.misa.org (received via email alert 01.06.10)