Fight over corpse

NNASARETHA KGAMANYANE
Correspondent | Monday May 13, 2013 00:00

 

TSOLAMOSESE: She has been dead for almost a month but Goitseone Bathobakae is yet to go to her final resting place.  Her corpse is one of the most travelled. It has been to Princess Marina mortuary, Serowe mortuary, and is awaiting a court order today to learn whether she can finally rest at her birthplace of Mhalapitsa in Tswapong South or at Tsolamosese, her home, or Kopong, her husband's home.

Goitseone's two families from her husband's side and from her parents' side are wrangling over her body, each claiming to have the full rights to bury her wherever they wish. The family dispute on who should bury Goitseone, who died on April 17th in Tsolamosese erupted after her family and children refused to let her husband Augustine Bathobakae  of Kopong bury the deceased saying that he did not take care of her when she was sick.

According to the deceased's mother Heile Lephokgo, her daughter fell ill in 2012 and she (the mother) had to leave her home at Mhalapitsa to take care of her. She said that she was surprised to hear her daughter asking her to take care of her when she was married.

'It was not my place to take care of my daughter because she was married. Her in-laws had to take care of her because traditionally when ones daughter gets married she is no longer her mother's child as she is adopted into the new family (in-laws). I with the help of her siblings took care of her but to my surprise even her husband did not take care of her. All he did was go to the shebeen and come home drunk and harass us,' the old woman revealed with teary eyes.

She said that what saddened her most is that her son-in-law neglected his wife and never on any day checked how she was doing. She said that after a few months nursing her daughter, Augustine started complaining that they (mother and siblings) were wasting food and electricity. Heart ached Lephokgo said that with the help of the deceased's siblings they managed to take her to the doctors as her ailment required special treatment.

The  old woman said that when her daughter got better in January she returned to her husband's home but she was later surprised to hear that the deceased had called her sister who was working in Kang at the time to come and take care of her as her husband did not care about her and was verbally and emotionally abusing her. She said that when she called Augustine to check on her late daughter he would tell her that she was not sick but was later puzzled to find her daughter in critical condition.

Lephokgo said that at times Augustine would pass remarks and insult the deceased until she cried which worsened her sickness. 'Seeing that the situation was getting worse, my daughter who was staying at Gaborone West with her husband asked me to take her back to her yard in Tsolamosese as her husband did not care about her and was making her sickness worse by the day due to stress. I told her that I had no right to take her from her husband as she is legally married to him so she asked me to take her to the magistrate where she would seek help which we did,' she said as she sobbed.

She said that the magistrate after seeing that the deceased was in a critical state went to her in the car and gave them a letter that summoned her husband to court to hear what his problem was but he threw the letter away. 'He was called three more times before he appeared before the magistrate and revealed that he wanted nothing to do with my daughter. My daughter wrote an affidavit that she wanted to stay with us as her in-laws and husband had neglected her. She even pointed out that when she dies we must bury her due to the painful ordeal that man put her through. Her husband even told the magistrate that he did not want anything to do with my daughter.He confirmed this three times before the magistrate,' she said.

The deceased's furious sister Mabedi said that she was heart broken when her brother-in-law kicked them out of his house and refused to give them the car ordering them to catch a taxi to go to the deceased home in Tsolamosese. Even though they refused to leave the car behind, she said that he also refused to carry his wife and never bothered to check on her until she passed away. She said that she was heart broken when the man demanded to be given the car back as its job was done as his wife was no more.

'At first he said we must bury my sister but later demanded to bury her at Kopong. He never bothered coming here after he heard that his wife passed away. When my sister's four daughter's whom none of them is his, pleaded with him to let them bury their mother at her home village he took us to court. We were ordered to work together and bury my sister in Tsolamosese on Wednesday but we are surprised that they never showed up.

Goitseone's family said that all they want is to lay their daughter to rest as she has suffered enough. They said that they even invited Kgosi Puso Gaborone to intervene but did not succeed changing their son-in-law's mind. They said Kgosi Gaborone requested to meet him six times but Augustine refused.

Augustine refused to comment. he dropped the phone, and then gave the phone to one of his relatives, who said we should just write whatever we want.  One of his family members refused to give out any information saying that we can write whatever we want and also refused to provide  his lawyer's contact details.