Kwerepe The Fire Fighter Extraordinaire

By Monkagedi Gaotlhobogwe
Staff Writer | Monday October 6, 2008 00:00

 

The acting director in the department of forestry and ranch land management in the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism is an office man. However, everything to do with fire disasters that have come to haunt this country of late revolves around him. With the country experiencing the worst fire disasters in history, Kwerepe's office has been busy.

The unprecedented outbreaks of veldt fires that have hit hard on Botswana's natural beauty, grazing land, farms, and the general vegetation, have seen Kwerepe's office becoming the most important in the land.

At his office at Lowapi House, situated along Old Lobatse Road, Kwerepe and his team are busy every day analysing new fire threats, and outbreaks and relaying the data to the various parts of the country for action to be taken. Through satellite they can also report on progress made in fire fighting across the country.

Time and again the energetic looking grey-haired official is on the phone communicating new information, or receiving updates on the state of fires in different parts of Botswana.

Kwerepe's office is where all satellite information about new fires, as well as burnt areas is received, and relayed for remedial action.

The acting director says on average his office receives as many as five new reports on fires daily. The information is relayed from a satellite station in South Africa.

In a country with so much virgin land, Kwerepe's office has become both the ears and the eyes of the nation. He updates the Office of the President (OP), which is where the National Disaster Management Office is located. They warn the various districts about new fire threats, as well as the ferocity of the fires.

Just before Independence Day celebrations on September 30, for instance, they received satellite information that showed that there were fires heading into Botswana from the Caprivi Strip in Nambia, the Hwange national park in Zimbabwe, while others were coming from the Kgalagadi Trans-Frontier Park.

Kwerepe's office can also analyse how much land has been destroyed in the veldt fires, using information from satellite.

He has become more of a messenger of bad news lately, as fires seem to break out everywhere, leaving trails of destruction. 'Botswana is burning as you can see. There is not much land left now. The country continues to burn,' he says with a sense of desperation.

Kwerepe says in the midst of the national disaster that has emerged, they have learnt that Batswana are reluctant to help fight the fires. 'I do not know what has happened to the spirit of voluntarism and communalism that used to characterise this nation. People just do not want to volunteer any more. They demand to be paid. Most of the people that we use to extinguish the fires are public servants, including members of the armed forces. It is sad that people can just watch their communal land burn and claim it is none of their business,' Kwerepe says.

Kwerepe is pinning hopes on early rains, which are expected this month. 'The hope is that it will rain, and the rains will put out the fires once and for all. That is our hope.'

It is not surprising that Kwerepe is pinning the nation's hopes on the heavens. The level of destruction so far is enough testimony that Botswana remains incapacitated to contain veldt fires.