Batawana chief to be buried tomorrow

Moremi died last week at the Letsholathebe II Memorial Hospital. An official of the Batawana Tribal Administration said Moremi will be buried at the royal cemetery at the main Maun Kgotla after a memorial at the Methodist Church. Chiefs from all over the country are expected to attend the burial. Moremi, who was born in 1941 in Maun, went for his primary school education in South Africa.

He came back to Botswana to attend secondary school at St Joseph's College. He also studied in England and the former Rhodesia. 

In 1969, he was appointed the chief's representative for Makalamebedi but he was shortly transferred to Maun. 

In 1981, he became the Batawana regent, following the death of his elder brother,  Letsholathebe. He was acting for his nephew Tawana who was by then a minor.  

During the time, Moremi became a member of the then House of Chiefs, which is now called Ntlo ya Dikgosi.  Moremi was regent until 1995 when Tawana took over. 

He was later appointed deputy paramount chief, a post he held until his death. He was a cattle farmer and a socialite. He was fondly known as 'Bingo' in Maun. Moremi was a man of few words and at times, his speech would hardly  take five minutes.  At one time, when closing a workshop in Maun, he was through with his speech and sat down even before photographers took a picture of him.

Maun District Officer, Yvonne Kedimotse described Moremi as humorous and down to earth.  She said at times he conversed in Sesotho and said that 'ga ke tsebe Setswana ngwana wetsho'.  Kedimotse said she regarded Moremi as a parent. She added that Moremi treated everyone equally. The departed chief was regent when Batawana opposed the proposed dredging of the Okavango River in the early 1990s.