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and at this point the Attorney General handed in – as evidence – the statement of the Union Prime Minister to the Nationalist Party Conferenceon 26 October 1949. A copy of the debate in the Legislative Assembly of Southern Rhodesia, when there had been unanimous agreement that Seretse should not be installed as chief, was also included as evidence.
    Fraenkel tackled Ellenberger on the issue of South Africa. He argued that, in actual fact, the Union was dependent upon the Protectorate for labour in the mines. On the matter of the export of cattle, he added, the market for beef was expanding in the north.
    Walter Stanford Pela had come to Serowe from South Africa to express the views of the Bangwato men working in the mines on the Rand and in Pretoria. Pela had been Seretse’s boarding master at Tiger Kloof and had a degree in Native Law and Administration. He had already made public his support for Seretse’s marriage in June that year, in a South African magazine called
Common Sense
. 28 Now he contended that under Sotho-Tswana customary law, the Kgotla occupied the same position as Parliament according to Western concepts. ‘Tswana customary law,’ he argued, ‘recognises no colour distinction, and an objection based on this ground is untenable for lack of precedent.’ He accused Tshekedi of wanting his children to succeed to the chieftainship after Seretse’s death. He pleaded with the Commission not to be influenced by the recent statements of the Prime Ministers of the Union and of Southern Rhodesia.
    Kgosi Mokgosi of the Balete also disputed Tshekedi’s position, arguing that he was motivated by political ambition. ‘I and my Tribe agree to Seretse’s marriage,’ he said. ‘I may say that Seretse’s marriage really did not cause any offence.’
    A memorandum from Kanye, the capital of the Bangwaketse Reserve, was read aloud. Dated 20 October 1949, it was signed by fifteen people who could not attend, including teachers, clerks, administrators, sanitary inspectors and policemen. They took a very different view from their Kgosi, Bathoen II. They praised Seretse’s leadership qualities – pointing out that he was chief prefect at Tiger Kloof and Lovedale – and argued that his education was good for the people. While he was in England, they said, Seretse had worked on a farm to gain knowledge of farming methods there. But the chief argument of the memorandum was that
    Seretse’s unquestionable royal birth has never been a hindrance to his free association with persons of all classes. He ‘walked with kings but never lost the common touch’. This is evidenced by the way he was always ready to serve others even if it was a matter of fetching water for somebody both of lower rank and younger than he. Such seemingly small deeds go a long way in the hearts of men.
    Then it added, by way of example:
    Once, in a social gathering, a number of people asked to hear ‘the voice of the Kgosi’. He was bound to say one or two things, and inter alia he said something very significant of his character: ‘Well, you have heard my voice, it is no different from yours…’
    â€˜Such interest in the common man, so rare among many of our leaders,’ argued the authors of the memorandum, ‘augurs well for a successful leader who will not remain at the topmost stratum but will go down in order to uplift the masses up the ladder of progress fully understanding their shortcomings.’ He was not the first Kgosi to marry the woman of his choice – and a ‘woman of one’s choice refers equally to all colours, whether white, black, green or yellow in this respect’. The matter had only cropped up ‘because of the dislike for the unlike, which the more democratic and liberal peoples of the world are trying to fight against everyday’.
    A memorandum had also been submitted by Monametsi Chiepe, from Vryburg in