Tutume's low progress worries leaders

KEABETSWE NEWEL & MOGOMOTSI BUZWANI
Correspondents | Tuesday November 16, 2010 00:00

Tutume is one of the more rapidly growing villages in northern Botswana yet it is neglected by the powers that be.

Tutume village is situated north of Francistown, just after Sebina-Nshakazhongwe villages.

When taking a tour around the village, exquisitely developed homes are visible. In fact the village consists of modern houses usually found in suburban places like Gaborone's exclusive suburbs of Phakalane and Molapo in Francistown.

The village has four wards, namely Magapatona, Selolwane, Thini and Madikwe, the central ward.

The village is also a Sub-district, meaning that it heads other neighbouring villages like Makobo, Mathangwane, Maitengwe, and others. Services such water services, land services and developments are controlled from Tutume Village.

While exploring the village, Mmegi was lucky to run into the village's deputy Kgosi Pius Selolwane.

By 1941, there was no village called Tutume but only Selolwane and Magapatona, which were villages at that time, Kgosi Selolwane said adding that people in those places came to settle near the Tutume River as their source of water.

'Towards the end of 1941 people relocated from Nkange and some villages nearby and came to stay in this area now known as Tutume. People living in Thini and Madikwe villages by then had nowhere else to live, it was then that Tutume River was made a boundary for people to live whilst the other side was their fields and cattle post,' Selolwane says.

All the other bigger villages around the Tutume River were later grouped to form one village called Tutume that was named after Tutume River. The smaller villages were made wards within Tutume.

Selolwane said that in 1966 after independence headquarters of Bakalanga villages were in Tjizwina, commonly known as Sebina. 'This village ran short of water and it was then decided to find another location and Tutume village was identified as a viable alternative. There was a ward called BB1 in Sebina where the Di-kgosi were from Serowe,' he said. According to him, in a process to set headquarters Moraka Modie was appointed a Kgosi to head Bakalanga from Sebina all the way to Maitengwe. He said Modie was a Kalanga. He further said that after the appointment of a Kalanga Kgosi to head Bakalanga, it was then that Tutume Tribal Administration was set up.

'Motimane Nsala was then made an additional Kgosi under the headman of records. In 1978 the main Kgotla was raised to a Senior Tribal Authority or a Sub-District. Within it was a headman of record and three Di-kgosi, this was when it was awarded a position of headquarters of tribal authority,' Selolwane said.

He said Tutume has really grown. 'Our children in Tutume have developed their homes so much that they have transformed it. Youths in this village are also involved in the running of businesses,' he said. According to him, although youth in the village are doing their best in businesses like farming, they do not get assistance. He said that there is nowhere they can sell their products, saying the government does not support them fully.

He however said that the development of the village itself had been compromised. 'Tutume's developments are poor, we could be having things like a bus rank, stadium and a police station, which is up to date, because this one was set up in 1963 and does not meet today's demands as it has only one cell,' Selolwane complainedLack of developed roads is also a major concern. Selolwane said that they do not have internal roads. 'Taxis cannot deliver passengers into the village because there are no roads, forcing people to walk long distances because of lack of roads,' he said.

Selolwane also said that they only have two bridges in the village, which are not enough since they cater for all the surrounding villages.

He said  there is an 8km distance between these villages. 'This is disadvantageous to the villagers, in rainy seasons, children cannot go to school, we also have patients who fail to go to clinics because there are no bridges to cross,' complained Selolwane.

Speaking to Tutume Central councillor Moseki Mathodi expressed concern over the pace of Tutume Sub-District development. According to him, CDC has six sub-districts, namely Bobirwa, Boteti, Serowe-Palapye, Mahalapye, Tonota and Tutume Sub-Districts. Mathodi said Tutume was the first sub to be formed in the late 80s. He said there is a lack of infrastructure in their district.

Tonota as the second sub-district is an example according to Mathodi. 'Tutume sub-district has only Rural Administration Council (RAC) just because it was a pilot project. The old Tutume police station, the one blocked Primary Hospital which at the moment has a shortage of nurses and doctors are some of the facilities that need to be refurbished and extended,' he said.

The Tonota bus rank, Tonota College of Education and the police station are amongst the big developments that differentiate the two. Despite the recession that struck the country last year, Mathodi said their district has been ignored before. He added that they (councillors) didn't have motions to pass during the full council meetings as they were told about the recession. Tutume River, which the village was named from, made lives of many more especially during the rainy seasons in very hard. The river lies just along and behind McConnell College, Magapatona Primary, Denjebuya Junior School, shopping mall and the RAC, making students and some civil servants' lives hard.

'There is not even a foot bridge across. Some students do not attend classes during rainy days as the river would be overflowing,' Mathodi said.

Mathodi said if one takes a tour in all CDC Sub-districts, he would think that Tutume Sub district was established recently.

The only project that is successfully on going from the piloted RAC is the Mosetse-Tutume road project that started in 2008.

Councillor Ishmael Mokgethi, of Tutume West also shared his complaints; he confirmed that indeed developments in Tutume are compromised. He said that infrastructure is lacking behind. 'We could be having district chambers that we hold meetings in, but we always struggle to find a suitable place for meetings,' Mokgethi said.

Mokgethi also complained that the awarding of developments is unfair. 'Tonota used to be under the Tutume Sub-district, yet if you look at Tonota, there are developments that could have been in Tutume as the mother sub-district'.

According to Mokgethi, the hospital is also a shameful sight, with only one block with divisions, where women, men and children are assisted in one place. He also mentioned that Tutume should have a shopping complex because villages smaller than it have got malls.

'For a place as large as Tutume why not erect a suitable hospital? The government keeps on mentioning recession whilst years pass by and some places are being developed while ours is completely left out,' concluded Mokgethi.