Council chairman charged with poaching

UNDER INVESTIGATION: Ntsogotho

North West District council chairperson, Kebareeditse Ntsogotho is set to appear before Maun magistrate court next week Friday to face poaching charges.

Confirming the case, Ntsogotho stated that the Directorate of public prosecution (DPP) served him with the summons last month.

“It is true, they are taking me to court,” Ntsogotho confirmed briefly in a matter regarding his encounter with a buffalo on the outskirts of his home village, Khwai in May 2020 that left him badly injured and permanently scarred.

Although the chairman had insisted that he was attacked while trying to help some of his community members escape the marauding animal, the police treated the case as a poaching incident.

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It was not until last month however that Ntsogotho was charged for the alleged crime.

Ntsogotho was gored by a charging buffalo on 10 May, 2020. He sustained a deep cut to his left thigh and fainted during the ordeal, only regaining consciousness in hospital hours later.

He has since claimed that he was preparing to return to Maun for a council meeting when villagers called him to the scene on that fateful Sunday afternoon.

According to him, a group of nine or so men had gone fishing when they were attacked by a buffalo and fearing for their lives, he says the group called him begging for help.

“They had called wildlife officers who were taking a long time to respond. Their lives were in imminent danger. I have a gun, my father has a gun, so I had to respond because the men were in need of more bullets. Theirs had run out when they were trying to defend themselves against the beast,” Ntsogotho had explained to Okavango Voice during a previous interview, adding that the men eventually managed to shoot the buffalo down.

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He insisted there was never a cause for anyone to suspect poaching in the first place and suspects the allegation were fuelled by his political opponents in a bid to remove him from the District’s high seat by sending him to jail.

Nonetheless, Officer Commanding for District 5, Peter Gochela had always insisted that the matter was under investigation and that they will at the end know if there was a case that needed to be pursued or not.

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