15 Jun 2021

About nine kilometers east of Tonota lies Ditladi. 

Upon hearing the name Ditladi, one may think about the loud rumbling sound caused by expansion of rapidly heated air around a lightening bolt.  

On the contrary, the name of this place of abode to over 1 800 inhabitants has got nothing to do with thunder.

Those who settled in this village around the 1930s depended mostly on hunting. 

Due to the need for water, animals had little choice but to come back for water at the nearby water stream hence the name “Di-tla-di le mo go one molapo” which has since been shortened to Ditladi.

Kgosi Boitshoko Tumedi of Lekomoto Ward in Ditladi relayed that the people of Ditladi had their origins in Mmadinare and only migrated following eruption of tribal feuds.

 The aggrieved group settled in Patse in the then Rhodesia and they would frequently cross into Botswana on a hunting expedition where they killed and took game meat with them as a way of paying homage to Kgosi Kokoro with whom they migrated to Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile, they did not want their rival, Kgosi Oteng and his tribe to know their whereabouts. 

When things returned to normal in Mmadinare, the Kokoro faction came back home and settled in Ditladi due to abundance of wild animals.

Kgosi Tumedi said the settlement was under the rulership of Kgosi Kokoro until it was declared a village in 1985 and divided into three wards of Ditlatshana, Lekomoto and Shashe. 

He said when they came back from Zimbabwe, they submitted to Kgosi Radipitse of Tonota.

Meanwhile, Kgosi Kgosietsile Letamo of Ditladi said in an interview that his village was faced with challenges of homebrews such as Modaefoko, ginger, powdered shake shake and many others.  He decried gross violation of COVID-19 protocols. He complained that some people gatheed until morning without giving due regard to protocols.

On one hand, Kgosi Letamo said acute shortage of employment, poor road networks, crime, teenage pregnancy as well as stock theft were matters of grave concern in his village. ENDS