Illegal settlements by ex-BCL miners irk villagers
Imi Mokgethi | Friday December 2, 2016 15:48
Speaking during the last day of the three-day fourth Botswana’s Alternative Mining Forum in Selebi-Phikwe on Wednesday, the villagers explained that those settlements are being set up by the former BCL employees who are now keen to venture into farming.
A Mmadinare resident, Thatayaone Marumo stated that though they have experienced a similar problem in the past, where retired miners were illegally occupying land in their area, the situation has worsened since the closure of the BCL, as many people are fleeing the copper and nickel town to find new means of survival.
“When we approach them about the matter, they tell us that the land belongs to the BCL mine not Mmadinare village. They also make it difficult for the agriculture officers to carry out the seed distribution process for residents as they have increased the villagers’ numbers although they were not registered to get those seeds,” he said.
Marumo further indicated that illegal settling has raised the stocktheft crime in the village adding that there are also high numbers of misunderstandings between farmers. Furthermore he explained that when the BCL was set up in Selebi-Phikwe several years ago, there was an agreement that the mine will only use the underground while the residents continue occupying the surface area, noting that the mine was built on their fields.
He however, stated that the BCL operators failed to honour the agreement as the residents were moved from the area and were not allocated any ploughing land as promised, a thing he said has negatively affected their farming due to shortage of land.
Another Mmadinare resident, who is also a headman for Kelele ward, Gaokgopege Phillip shared the same sentiments, highlighting that consequently the farmers in the area have no grazing land for their livestock as the land has been occupied by the illegal settlers. “The worse part of it is that they just occupy our land without even consulting us as residents so that the village leaders may have an insight of people who reside in their village,” she said. She further suggested that the former employees who are old people should consider going back to their home villages and leave young people who can at least utilise youth development programmes provided by the government to make a living.
Phillip also highlighted that when it happens that the mine re-opens, they will demand thorough consultation from the government and other critical stakeholders on how the operations are going to affect them, as well as measures that are in place to address the impact.
“It seems like we are being discriminated against in this country because what is happening here is not the case in other mining areas. No one has cared to come to us and hear our grievances and if it was not for this forum, we would not have an opportunity to share these experiences,” said Phillip. On the other hand, another resident from Sefophe pointed out that they have a similar situation in their village with many people invading their village in search of land. He added that the mine’s closure has also spiked the crime rate in the village something he said is a result of the alarming unemployment rate.
Meanwhile, Daniel Morapedi from Tobane stated that they are somehow happy with the closure of the Mine, as its processes have been polluting the Tobane River that is a source of water for their livestock.
“We now suggest that the government should continue suspending the issuing of sand harvesting licences to protect our river and should the BCL re-open, they should look for other alternatives to run their operations without harvesting sand in our area,” said Morapedi.