KRDA - developing what?

| Friday April 13, 2007 00:00

As a sometime resident of Molepolole, I derive no pleasure whatsoever in contemplating these so-called developments - which seem in fact quite the opposite, and retrogressive.  For one thing, jam-packed with a profusion (confusion?) of shops and trading points as it already is, the Kweneng capital needs another shopping complex like it needs another claimant to the paramount chieftainship. For another, the old Mafenya-Tlala Hotel (Gateway to the Kalahari) had some real style and character and should really have long ago been rebuilt and improved.

 

I gather that a complacent KRDA Management had forgotten to insure it against fire, etc. and thus its burning down was a complete loss to the public.

As for cheerfully promising to destroy hectares of established trees, the Chairman should remember that these plantings were established with great effort, with donor money in trust for the Association and baKwena as a whole. 

 

Together with the associated Nursery and many village planting programmes, they set a standard and example for several other Brigade centres, and even for the Government itself. The dedicated men and women who, 30 years ago, raised, planted, nursed, protected (and sustainably harvested!) those plantations must be turning in their graves. It seems the present KRDA board and mamagement care nothing for the environment, local production of raw materials, skills development, or creating employment other than retail counter-hands for foreign goods.  And apparently, professional offers to manage one or more of the plantations have been ignored.

By these standards, KRDA should rename itself the 'Kweneng Crass Commercialisation Association'. As for 're-electing the Board in its entirety' that must constitute a definite 'thumbs down'.

 

M.O.Ditlhare (Mr.),

Serowe