Despite history Monarch wallows in poverty

EDWARD BULE
Correspondent | Friday December 4, 2009 00:00

Some of these notices are written or inscribed on kiosks or makeshift shelters that have long been abandoned.

Even on a normal working day, you observe multitudes of people, both old and young, relaxing at the local shebeens or sitting nonchalantly at their homes, which consist of shacks. You also see undernourished children playing and wallowing in the muddy waters of the Ntshe and Tati rivers oblivious of the inherent health hazards.

Perhaps as an effort to assuage the palpable sense of desolation, you also see signs that say 'Destitute Shelter, Tshireletso AIDS awareness Centre and Lephoi Centre' and perhaps to counter the spirit of hopelessness, you notice church buildings and makeshift places of worship.

The existence on the margins of the economy by the people of Monarch location is a painful irony considering the historical fact that the township sprung up partly as a result of the 19th Century mineral revolution that swept through Southern Africa. Before 1867 the locals used to mine gold in the area that later came to be known as the Tati Territory, perhaps at the behest of the Mambo of The Mwana-Mutapa Empire. In  1867, Carl Mauch, with the help of the locals 'discovered' diamonds in the Tati Territory. A gold rush ensued.

More prospecting was done, resulting in the birth of a number of syndicates and mining companies such as the Durban Gold Mining Company, the London and Limpopo Gold Mining Company, the Glasgow Mining Company, the Verulem Company and the Northern Light Gold Exploration Company.

The Tati Company, an amalgamation of several mining companies, was formed by among others, Daniel Francis who, though born in Liverpool, England, stayed in New Zealand. Soon there were about 100 mines being worked in the entire Tati Territory. Among the most significant were the Blue Jacket Mine, the Vermaaks Mine, the Golden Eagle Mine, the New Zealand Mine, the Phoenix Mine, the Monarch Mine, the gem Wimfred Mine as well as the Monarch Mine, which turned out to be the most productive of them all.

In 1870, the Tati Company called the people of the Tati Territory together to inform them that the territory now belonged to it. After losing their land rights the people could only stay as tenants subjected to a whole regime of rents and taxes whose combined effect was to consign them to the company as a source of cheap labour.

The mining companies however, according to oral history, preferred East African workers, on account of their docility. By 1871, it had become clear that the Tati Territory was not the abode of the biblical King Solomon's mines the prospectors had hoped. Most of the gold on the surface had been removed by the early or so-called primitive local miners.

Secondly, most of the mines had no capital to buy adequate mining equipment to achieve a profitable level of production. Gold markets globally had collapsed. The remoteness of the Tati Territory to the seaports was an additional disincentive.

When diamonds were discovered at Kimberly in 1868, the majority of the miners abandoned the Monarch mine for the more lucrative mining opportunities in South Africa.

Daniel Francis, a founding board member of the Tati Company and the man after whom Francistown is named, relocated to Kimberly where he formed the Standard Mining Company and became immensely rich. Some of the people who gave up on the Monarch Mine because it was not profitable, ventured into other economic activities such as farming and retail business. Indeed, the Monarch Mine, the only one operating at the time had to open and close several times because of the fluctuating gold prices. The last operators of this mine were Messrs Haskins of the Tati Goldfields. By this time, a settlement mainly for former mine workers had developed near the mine in present day Monarch. Individuals had also come from villages around Francistown and beyond to look for employment with the white miners or government officials as gardeners or shop assistants. Among the first people to settle in Monarch were the Mmei family, who were farmers. According to oral history, the school Mmei Junior Secondary School was named in their honour as it was built on the plot where they once lived.

When the Monarch mine finally ceased operating, it was clear that the mining revolution, which had been expected to bring about prosperity and economic justice, brought the death traps in the form of pits and environmental pollution from the use of cyanide. Gilbert Nfila, a 70-year-old resident of Monarch since 1959, claims that he once lost cattle due to cyanide, an acid used to separate gold from the orebody. The dumps of soil left outside the pits were contaminated and a health hazard to both human beings and animals. During the dry season, for instance, dust rose from the dumps and the people unawares inhaled it thus endangering their lives. Children playing on the poisonous dumps were not safe either. During the rainy season, the acidic material mixed with water and found its way into the river where the people and animals drank. Those who used the river water for irrigation purposes contaminated their crops, imperiling the lives of their customers.

After a public outcry, the Botswana government started the rehabilitation of the Monarch mine in 2007. The project, which was completed without a single incident, was finished in 2009 with the filling up of about 17 shafts at the cost of P24 million of taxpayers' money without any contribution from Tati Company. The initial attempt to keep people and animals from the area by erecting a fence did not work because they either went through the fence or over it.

At the time of the exploration and mining for gold at Monarch, unlike now, there were no set standards for the miners to follow. The economic interests tended to outweigh whatever damage might be caused to the environment. The present set up, internationally, is for the entity desiring to operate a mine to present to the government a comprehensive environmental impact assessment report before a licence is given.

This entails a list of all possible adverse effects on the environment as well as the control measures envisaged to address some. Any departure from this can invite court action by the concerned government. Among the economic activities at Monarch are vegetable gardens along the rivers. Kesentseng Moloise keeps one such garden. She irrigates the garden by pumping water from the river using a generator.

Her profit margin is very small due to the high cost of fuel and pesticides. Her main customers are individuals and kiosk owners.

Some people, due to non-availability of space elsewhere, run motor vehicle repair or wedding workshops at home. Others operate Kiosks selling firewood and yet others run supermarkets and butcheries. But the majority do nothing.

Urbanization is usually associated with de-culturilisation. A lot of people upon residing in town denounce their culture as primitive only to adopt other people's cultures and beliefs. Not so with Billy Mpofu and his legion of clients. After a calling by his ancestors, Mpofu went to Pretoria and studied herbs at the African College in 1967. He specialises in the treatment of sugar diabetics, ulcer, cancer and venereal diseases and infertility. A bull, treated by him, he claims, will not wander from one kraal to the other, siring calves but will stick to its owner's cows.

A 27-year-old woman, who did not wish to be identified discussing her spirituality, still remains faithful to her traditional beliefs in the form of taboos. She stays in her modern house in Monarch. Here water is not brought into the yard after sunset, live fire cannot be carried from one place to another in the compound, nothing can be handed to or received from somebody over the fence and it is also taboo for anybody to jump over the fence. Although she cannot be specific regarding the consequences that would befall those who break the time- honoured commandments, she swears that these are not mere superstitious beliefs to be disregarded. Gilbert Nfila, a traditionalist to boot, is worried about a gigantic tree a few metres from his home in Monarch that has been struck by lightning twice. He wants the tree felled and burnt to ashes. After the first strike, during which somebody died from the lightening, he and fellow traditionalists implored the community leaders to get rid of the haunted tree but to no avail and because, according to him, the 'lightening bird' had left its 'eggs' in the tree, it came back. It is taboo even for the twigs from this tree to be used as firewood.

Monarch is a place where some people have abandoned their traditional customs and humanity perhaps out of expediency. For example, crime reigns supreme in this township. Kiosk have been targeted so regularly that the proprietors have had to engage a security guard whom they pay collectively. The more determined thieves would get into the Kiosk through the roof.

A man, identifying himself as Sibusiso, laments the fact that some community members do not help the police with information, instead they harbour the criminals. He has also lost faith in the police because he suspects that some elements within the police collude with the criminals. He hopes that after the multimillion Pula project by the Chinese to install a sewerage system and rehabilitate the roads, Monarch will have a new look with sufficient lighting. He would like government to subsidise electricity to make it affordable to everybody for the sake of school children who need to study in the evening.

Among the social ills of town life is co-habitation. Reverend Tolani Poiso of the Light Of Christ Apostolic Church in Zion, denounces the practice as being at variance with the word of God.

With the rehabilitation of the Monarch Mines now complete, it is perhaps time to rehabilitate the alcoholics and criminals so that even socially, this township will have a new look by 2016.