Kaudwane - an oasis of technology

MARANYANE NGWANAAMOTHO
Staff Writer | Tuesday August 10, 2010 00:00

There is nothing to write home about, concerning the trip between the turn-off and Letlhakeng - the next town you pass through on your way to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), except a very poorly maintained road whose sides have been chipped away over time, until it became a single vehicle highway. Unless you are a regular on this road, you will consistently need to drive a part of your vehicle on the dirt and the other on the tarmac each time another vehicle approaches from the opposite direction. You can't shake off the feeling that each wheel rotation takes you further away from civilization. You are acutely aware that you may not be able to call or receive calls on your cellphone, check your email, visit your Facebook page, or fax to the office that important paper that you forgot to submit before you left for your weekend of camping in the desert, that is better known as Khutse Game Reserve. And so like most that have used this road on their way to the CKGR I had these ideas about the area. That was until last week when I had the opportunity to visit Kaudwane, a Basarwa settlement or resettlement village just outside the CKGR.

At 203 kilometres from Gaborone the drive should be considered short, by Botswana standards. But it was like a 500 kilometre drive owing first to the bad Letlhakeng road and then the long desert road to the CKGR.  The village itself has nothing to announce to the visitor that you are entering a village - especially given the fact that it is the first village you will come across after Letlhakeng. You could easily miss the settlement. The traditional Basarwa huts made of sticks and grass - mogwaafatshe stand nonchalantly in the cold desert, owners and their children standing in apparent awe or was it appreciation of government four wheel drive vehicles and trucks that rumbled into their quiet settlement for the event that had brought me here.

These people have nothing except their huts. No car, no donkey cart, and no kiosk.  You could be walking through a deserted village, as it appeared as though there was no activity in the settlement. Looking at the inhabitants, it is easy to see that theirs is not a life about how much material one accumulates or how much power one wields.

These simple people would be more worried about getting a meal for tonight, than acquiring a new vehicle - or even a bicycle. You would be forgiven for telling a colleague that he is out of his mind to think about an Internet cafe in this place. No, you are resigned to the fact that you are away from civilization at this point that a thought about such advanced technologies could be a sign of temporary dementia.

As most residents of Botswana's towns and cities would have experienced, a seemingly well-developed village does not always offer such communication technologies as Internet or fax. So all that glitters is not gold. But Kaudwane is another lesson: All that looks damp and bare is not dead. For right in the heart of this desert grass and twig settlement sits a village centre so networked that could easily rival most in Gaborone and other urban areas. Virtually every office here has a computer. Here even the kitchen worker may have a better understanding of operating the computer than some town-based lawyer. If you like, you may take a walk to the Kgotla. The Kgosi here will soon be computer savvy, ages ahead of those in Mogoditshane, Urban, Old Naledi or Lentsweletau.

This Kgosi has his own computer. And so the police in the adjacent office will no longer have to rely on some unreliable photocopied yellowing paper and plenty of overused carbon paper. Soon they will be able to summon information at the click of a button. Not even the constables' office in Letlhakane or Mochudi has anything like this. The village Chief Tsholo Segwaba says he is eager to start punching away at the computer keys, to learn how to use it. 'I don't know how to use a computer but I will start learning as soon as its installed,' he says.

The settlement's health post is located a stone's throw from the kgotla. Here the nurse also has her own computer very easily surpassing compatriots in urban areas. You can name Gaborone's Extension 2 clinic or Block 9, otherwise knows as Julia Molefhe for example. Keneilwe Majika the nurse here tells me that the computer and the solar panel were donated during the World Communication Day held in the village a couple of years back. 

She uses the computer to keep her records.  She hopes she will eventually get Internet. Meanwhile she goes to the village tele-center whenever she needs Internet services.  The tele-center itself sits to the east of the health post. You would not think much of this small porta-cabin until you entered it. Two men sit glued to the two computers that form part of the furniture in this office. They are surfing the net! From the tele-center you can call the USA, or China, or fax to Mongolia or e-mail Ghadaffi or any country of your choice. The operator of the tele-center, Omphile Motlhosi says that most clients are white tourists, leopard ecology workers, extension workers in the settlement and some villagers.

'People come here to type programmes, to fax, photocopy and make calls.  We also charge phones and sell airtime,' he proudly states. The tele-center, he says was recently donated to the village by Botswana Telecoms Corporation (BTC). The cherry on the cake to my little escapade was the main event at the village primary school.

The face-brick classrooms echoed the buzz of many an excited pupil as everybody in the village converged here for the main event. An astonishing 13 computers, landline telephone, photocopying machine, a generator, 18 solar panels and batteries all worth P300,000 were being handed over to the school head by Citizen Owned Businesses in Information Technology (COBIT) The donation was made last May but the school could not use the computers due to fuel shortages as the school relied on a generator for power supply.  Now with the help of Solar West organisation, the school will have power supply at all times. A COBIT representative, Pontsho Pusoetsile, said that the panel is a smart one that allows routine remote maintenance by someone stationed in Gaborone or even Germany who can service the system without coming to the settlement. 'It is the first time we have had this kind of technology in the country, and we have it here in Kaudwane,' he said. The donation, plus the previously existing computer and telecommunication infrastructure places the tiny settlement miles ahead of many urban areas and effectively makes it an oasis of technology in the desert.