Sinking Village Terrifies Residents
Pini Bothoko | Monday October 19, 2020 15:24
Villagers, who have been observing the cracks over the years thinking they were just unfortunate results of poor soils, are now in shock as the cracks are dangerously widening up.
Last week, pictures of huge ground cracks in Hatsalatladi circulated across the social media platforms leaving Batswana in confusion with part of the cracks also appearing on the Molepolole - Lephephe road section around the village.
A week ago, when the heavens opened up, the season’s first heavy downpours could have been welcome elsewhere, especially farmers, but not for residents of Hatsalatladi, about 30km along Molepolole/Lephephe road, who were instead left reeling in shock.
The Monitor crew recently visited the village to chat with the village leadership, elders and those who were affected by the phenomenon that is beyond any human control.
Keadirile Koloti, 86, said it was in the afternoon when she was resting under her house veranda when rain clouds gathered from the northern side quickly hanging over the village.
Koloti said she was overwhelmed with happiness because it had been long since it rained in the village and she moved her blankets inside the house with the help of her granddaughter.
She laid on the bed whilst enjoying the sound of rain all around her house.
“The rain stopped after some time. I went outside the house to enjoy the usual breeze after rainfall only to be shocked by a pool of water that had covered the whole compound. Surprisingly, there was a strange sound. I walked towards it only to find water quickly flowing into a hole a few metres away from another house. I did not know where that hole came from.
“E ne e kare metsi a teng a a bela fa a tsena ka mosima wa teng, a re kgookgookgooo …ne a tsena ka lebelo le le ko godimo thata. Moragonyana ke fa jarata e phaphaletse (the ground had swallowed all the water),” Koloti narrated.
Koloti said when she walked around the other house, she was shocked to see a huge crack that had literally severed the two-roomed house into two. She said she lost hope about the damaged house because she longer has the means to build another one.
“Ntlo jaaka o e bona e senyegile, ke e e batlang go thubiwa hela. Ke itlhobogile. ke godile ga ke na maatla lefa e le madi a go aga ntlo e nngwe gape. I am pleading with the government or any Good Samaritan to help. I have lost my husband and all of my children. My surviving helper is my granddaughter who is also unemployed. This is a most strange rain ever in the history of our village. Jarata yame e kgakala le mogobe wa Kgolomaduwe and we never thought we could experience floods,” she said.
Other residents like Omphithetse Kubutona look to traditional mysticism for answers. He believes a big snake popularly known as kgwanyape in Setswana torments the village. He stated that the cracks on the ground, in and around the village, have existed for years because of the big snake.
Asked if he has seen it, Kubutona claimed to have seen it flying at night on a number of occasions.
“Re tshwenngwa ke kgwanyape mo motseng o, ke yone e dibololang lefatshe jaana, e a bo e tsamaya ko tlase ga mmu (We’re troubled by kgwanyape in this village. It’s the one that moves around underground cracking up the earth)’” said Kubutona, very much sure of his story, and even vouching to have seen it with his naked eyes.
“We have seen it at night while entertaining ourselves. When it comes, first you’ll feel a cold breeze, which would induce you to move indoors . A little later you’ll see it flying past, its eyes alit like two lanterns,” he said.
But contrary to Kubutona’s claims, other villagers and leadership think a large body of underground water might cause the cracks.
Village elder, Alfred Makoro Seane blamed the Land Board for allocating residential plots along the stream.
“Batho ba beilwe ditsha mo tseleng ya metsi. Kweneng Land Board failed to consult village elders before allocating plots towards Kgolomadowe well. We could have advised them accordingly. Motse o o ntse o nale ‘lera’ a big crack that covers kilometres that comes from Letlhakeng side to the well, but we have never experienced its impact. The [fated] name Hatsalatladi comes from that long crack because our forefathers believed it occurred following a heavy thunderstorm,” Seane said.