Botshabelo Is No Place To Seek Refuge

CALISTUS KOLANTSHO
Correspondent | Friday June 4, 2010 00:00

Taking a walk in Botshabelo, one might feel as if they are in a war torn country until you see a council van with a Selebi-Phikwe Town Council sticker passing by. That is when you realise that you are in this town. Poverty, unemployment, smelly pit latrines and mud houses are the signature of this location.  In fact pit latrines have made some residents to give Botshabelo a nickname, 'sefokeng' referring to the smell of pit latrines. Children as young as six or four years can be seen playing in the dusty streets of this area when their agemates are doing Standard 1 or are attending pre-school.

The council used to have pre-schools in Botshabelo to cater for the low-income families until a decision was taken by the local authority to shut them down. The youth of this settlement - the oldest in Selebi-Phikwe having been built in the 1970's when people from Bobirwa and Tswapong came to seek employment in the BCL Mine - walk around the streets chatting to one another as if nothing matters in life anymore. I ask one of the boys, who simply identifies himself as Max, about the condition of life in the place they call Zola. 'Botshelo bo thata mo Phikwe, Mr - Life is hard here in Phikwe, Mr,' he says with a smile before puffing on a cigarette that he shares with his friend.

The built up in the area is mostly spiritual healing churches and shebeens where young men and women while their time over a carton of Chibuku or a bottle of khadi or village wine.  I enter a yard where I find a woman in her 50's soaking rice to prepare lunch for her family. She tells me that she works as a cleaner at Phikwe Square shopping centre and she is able to feed her family. Her neighbour, Kelebogile Matshaba (24), said that she holds a diploma in teaching from Serowe College of Education in 2009. She mentions that she is still waiting to be posted by the Ministry of Education.  'I have completed Department of Public Service Management (DPSM) forms but nothing is happening. This is surprising because there is a shortage of teachers in the country and by now I expected to be working,' she said. Matshaba observed that there is too much unemployment in Selebi-Phikwe and many Form Five leavers are roaming the streets with nothing to do.

 She stated that the government must come up with ways to create employment for residents of this town. Matshaba also lambasted the government for sideling Selebi-Phikwe. 'They took away the Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BUIST) from us and I just wish the government can set up a project that will lift the face of this town that is slowly dying. 'My concern is that whenever we ask for something we are told that there is no money but we see funds being wasted on things such as constituency league,' she cried out. Matshaba stays with her mother who is unemployed, two siblings who completed Form Five in 2008 and 2009 respectively and their father passed away last year. She said they rent the house they are staying in.

She said that to put food on the table their mother has to do odd jobs in the neighbourhood and she also has to find ways to bring food home. 'I applied for a temporary teaching post at Selebi-Phikwe Education Centre but I was not successful. The answer that they gave me was that the ministry will hire us when time comes. When will that time come?' she asks baffled. Another resident, Gabanaope Seokolo, said pit latrines in area pose a health hazard to them especially during the rainy season and the council must destroy them and build them water borne toilets. She stated that the council should not control how residents should build because most of them are unemployed. She appreciated that mud houses are not permitted in town but the economy does not allow them to build proper houses or even apply for SHHA loans because they do not have any source of income.  Seokolo also decried the decision by the government to stop the construction of the College of Applied Arts and Science in Selebi-Phikwe. She said the college was going to bring more people to Selebi-Phikwe and investors were going to start businesses and create employment. 'It seems like we are second-hand citizens of this country because we are always sidelined,' Seokolo says.

She complained that the Ipelegeng Programme that has been introduced does not benefit them because the P300 they get is very little. She noted that the government took a bad decision to remove some people from the destitute programme because some were included in it due to sickness.

Botshabelo West councillor, Kosi Matshaba, said the leadership of the country has failed Selebi-Phikwe. He said all projects that were billed for the town have been cancelled due to the economic downturn but President Ian Khama made the situation worse by throwing money at projects that are unnecessary.

Kopano Ward councillor, Mogae Ketshogile, said that when Botshabelo was set-up, Selebi-Phikwe was not a planning area and it is hard for the council to use the Building Control Act in the location.

He said the residents build their mud-houses which were not allowed in town a long time back. 'The council has encouraged residents to apply for SHHA loans because the houses are tainting the image of our town.  They are also dangerous because during rainy season, they are a disaster to the residents. Those who are building now should use the building control regulation that forces them to start with a two and half house,' said Ketshogile. He mentioned that SHHA loans are affordable to anybody who has a source of income. Ketshogile said the aim of the council is to phase-out pit latrines and residents are encouraged to connect to the sewerage pipeline. He pointed out that the council spent P35 million on the project and if not utilised the pipes will malfunction. Ketshogile highlighted that the council does not have the authority to destroy houses even if they are not built according to the housing regulations.

As the sun goes down in Botshabelo and residents get back to their shelters, the only dream they have is where to find the next meal.  Some of the unfortunate residents are disturbed in their sleep by criminals breaking into their houses to steal the few items they have. 'We get scared when it gets dark because crime is high in our location. Streetlights are also not functioning which makes the situation worse. Our children are forced to steal because they have given up on life. The government does not care about us,' said Mompati Seelo, who works for a security company.