04 Aug 2021

Jwaneng community on August 3 converged at the township’s customary court to remember Kgosi Salang Khumalo who succumbed to COVID-19 complications last Friday.

Speakers hailed Kgosi Khumalo as a unifier and hard worker who despised laziness.

Kgosi Khumalo who was until recently deputy court president had just been promoted to the position of court president in the same month of her demise and was about to assume the position at Monarch customary court in Francistown.

One of the speakers and a close friend ,who is also the Jwaneng township mayor, Ms Olga Ditsie hailed the late Kgosi Khumalo as a hard worker.

“I had the pleasure of working with her when she was still the acting court president, and by then she was still in charge of the two customary courts in Jwaneng. She discharged her duties diligently despite the workload,” she said.

Ms Ditsie also said that Kgosi Khumalo was in her position not because of the women empowerment card, which would have been a favour, but through her hard work. Ms Ditsie said as a fellow woman leader, she always consulted Kgosi Khumalo when she had to make hard leadership choices, including on her decision to stand for the position of the town’s mayor.

Kgosi Khumalo’s younger sister, Ms Olga Phokontsi told the gathering that a week before her death, her sister had been unwell, ultimately testing positive for COVID-19 and being admitted at Princess Marina hospital where her condition deteriorated until her death.

She, however, said as a family they took solace in the fact that Kgosi Khumalo died a devoted Christian and was in a better place.

On other issues, Ms Ditsie took the moment to caution the Jwaneng community on the high rate of COVID-19 transmission in town, saying that all the clinics around were short of health personnel.

 She said the problem was also exacerbated by the fact that the Majwe camp facility was no longer available as an isolation centre, which then put strain on other facilities.

She noted that the situation was so bad that nurses were now emotionally drained. She pleaded with bereaved families to consider desisting from daily prayers and instead hold just one memorial service and a funeral to cut down on chances of transmissions.

Kgosi Khumalo’s burial was expected to take place this morning at her home village of Mochudi. Ends