13 Apr 2025

As the undertaker lowered the casket to settle down into the dark grave, a poignant mark to the final sight of the man dubbed the quintessential traditional leader of Babirwa, heads were already devising plans to recognise, honour and celebrate the departed Kgosi Mmirwa Malema to etch him in their memories.

As he was laid to rest Saturday, to the right of his first wife, Queen Selebogo Malema, who departed August 16, 1988, mourners sent him resting to some excerpts of the famous Selelo Sa Malema song by his late sister Mphoreng Malema, who lamented the heart-wrenching and harrowing ploys by the British to force her people from the now Tuli, where they resided, to present day Bobonong.

It is noteworthy that the Malema sung about the grandfather to kgosi Mmirwa, the father to Kgosi Selamolela, who fathered kgosi Mmirwa.

At his funeral, speakers called for honour and recognition of the departed kgosi. They spoke in unison about how little, if not at all, Kgosi Mmirwa was recognised, honoured and celebrated among his people despite having been a gargantuan traditional figure.

Some speakers have already suggested that if and when built, the planned Bobonong District Hospital should be named after Kgosi Mmirwa, arguing that such a move would not only recognise their revered traditional leader, but put an enduring honour to his name.

First, when Kgosi Mmirwa, who led Babirwa for 44 years and the first to represent them at Ntlo Ya Dikgosi, retired, there was no celebration in his honour. It is also alleged that he was not accorded an honour to pass a baton, in a celebratory manner, to his successor, kgosi Joel Masilo, a precursor to the current calls.

Moruti Daniel Kwada, who is also a friend to the deceased, accused dikgosi in Bobirwa of sowing seeds of discord at the time when there should have been some peaceful transfer of power from Kgosi Mmirwa to Kgosi Masilo.

“I advised them (dikgosi) that before a welcome ceremony of Kgosi Joel they must first organise a farewell ceremony for Kgosi Mmirwa. The farewell ceremony would have acted as a proper and peaceful handover of a baton, but they flatly refused,” said Moruti Kwada.

Although agreeing with Kgosi Masilo that organising a farewell and handover ceremony for Kgosi Mmirwa was not a purview of the former, Moruti Kwada observed that the move handed Kgosi Masilo a divided morafe.

Calling for recognition and honour of the man he said was instrumental in developing Bobirwa, the former Minister of Justice, Defence and Security, Mr Shaw Kgathi concurred that it would suffice for some of the major infrastructure developments to be named after the man deemed colossal, yet humble.

While advocating for the recognition and honouring of Kgosi Mmirwa, Mr Kgathi reported to the Minister of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Mr Ketlhalefile Motshegwa that his ministry had been resisting to approve the community’s suggested name for the state-of-the-art Molaladau Clinic.

The community long suggested that the clinic, built by the World Group of Companies, should be named after Kgosi Malema Makhura, whose name had become synonymous with the liberation of Babirwa from Bangwato.

“They’re still not forthcoming up to now,” said Mr Kgathi.

However, Minister Motshegwa stated that he had informed area Member of Parliament, Mr Taolo Lucas, upon receiving explanations, that he approved the name.

He said the decision was in line with running a democratic government that allowed people to have and keep their identities while taking pride in and celebrating their being.

Kgosi Mmirwa passed on April 1. He was first married to Selebogo in 1957 and were blessed with eight children, three of whom are still alive. Kgosi Mmirwa went into the second marriage with Rebecca in 1997, with whom he begot six children.

“Mmirwa will be remembered as the ‘son of the soil’ who was dedicated to the development of his country and the revival of the legacy of his grandfather, Malema Morwapula Makhura (1855-1960), who had a vision of resistance to colonialism, as demonstrated by his resistance or refusal to give the ancestral land of the Babirwa to the British in 1920,” read part of the requiem dedicated to celebrating Kgosi Mmirwa’s life. ENDS