Away with BCL hostels
*MOETI MOHWASA | Friday May 31, 2013 00:00
The campaign will kick off with a march on the 3rd June, which will end with a petition being presented to the Assistant District Commissioner. A rally will also be held on the 8th June at General Freedom Square. The rally will be addressed by the Chairmen of the Botswana People's Party (BPP), Botswana Movement for Democracy and Botswana National Front namely Cde Richard Gudu, Cde Nehemiah Modubule and Cde Abram Kesupile respectively.
Globally, the movement of people from one place to another has shaped today's political, social and economic world and continues to be a major influence on society. In 2005, there were approximately 191 million migrants globally, a figure that has more than doubled since 1960; migrants now constitute almost 3 percent of the world population. This phenomenon has also taken place within countries. In Botswana for example men in particular moved in large numbers in the early 70s and 80s from rural to urban areas in search of employment opportunities. There was rapid urbanisation which was largely fuelled by the discovery and development of mining towns like Selebi Phikwe. This is a period which one can call 'the lost two decades'. When the country did not find the need to invest heavily on infrastructure and housing yet it could easily afford to do so.
Mining activities throughout the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have impacted on the health and safety of mining communities for many decades. Although mining companies have contributed towards improved social development by providing jobs, paying taxes and earning foreign exchange, they have also been linked to poor labour conditions, health and safety failings, as well as disrespect for human rights. The owners of the mines and bosses had little or no respect for the blacks and had an apartheid approach to doing business here.
Poor rural people, generally men, with no acquired skills, would leave their traditional rural homes for the towns and cities in search of work. They would leave their families behind to eke out an existence based on subsistence farming, or rely on remittances from the men working in the mines.
The displacement of people from rural communities where people have been able to fend for themselves for basic food has had a serious impact on issues such as food security, because the mining operations drastically change the nature of the communities and take away agrarian land from the communities. In Selebi Phikwe, mining has affected farming not only within the mine lease area. Sulphur dioxide from copper smelting has affected the vegetation and agricultural output in the region. Opportunities for women are very rare in mining communities. Consequently, some women take up prostitution as a way of earning income to feed themselves and the family.
Botswana is a country with a rich migration history. Post independence economic development in Botswana was also accompanied by rapid urbanisation and internal migratory flows from rural to urban areas and from one urban area to another depending on employment opportunities as perceived by migrant labourers. Domestic migration increased as landless and unemployed people moved to the cities to look for work, and hostels of various kinds, run by private landlords, governments and local authorities became a common solution.
Right from the start of the development of Selebi Phikwe, the BDP government and the company it owns, BCL, never cared about the welfare of the hostel dwellers. This explains why so many years down the line after spending millions on upgrading of its houses, the company has never seen it necessary to do away with this type of accommodation for its lowly paid workers. In this campaign, our focus will be specifically and limited to psychosocial and economic factors associated with the hostel living among workers in the two wards in Selebi Phikwe, majority of whom are in the mining industry.We call upon the new management which is led by locals to engage the shareholders with a view to doing away with the current situation.
The hostel system and its impact on migrant labourers The migrant labour system is generally characterised by adults who move to the city in search of a job, return to the rural home after this job has been completed or during periods of leave, and then repeats the cycle either in the new or same job after the leave period is over. The individual often undertakes this form of migration without the family. The workers find themselves in high risk situations. These include overcrowded and poor single sex hostels, harsh working conditions, desperate surrounding communities with a strong dependency on the miners' incomes, and poor recreational facilities. Hostels are perhaps the oldest institution for migrant labourers; they emerged as a response to some effects of industrialisation and urbanisation in the 19th century. It has its roots on crude capitalism and apartheid.
Hostels were originally designed to provide minimal and temporary type dormitory accommodation for single male migrant workers near the urban workplace for the period of a work contract. This type of accommodation is also devised to accommodate labourers at the lowest possible cost and provide very little consideration for comfort and quality of living environment, and to specifically to make it impossible for families to join their men residing there; disregarding community and family life.
Mine workers in Botswana often have no choice but to live in single-sex hostels without the option of being accompanied by their partners and families; furthermore home-leave is very limited, which further distances these men from their families and support system.Some men live in single rooms with their wives and children.Occupants of 20 single rooms share one common kitchen and ablution facilities. Our research has revealed that on average a block of 20 rooms is occupied by 50 people who will include men, their partners or wives and children. Currently the workers are housed in the Cosgrin, Phikwe Primary, McAlpine and Area 1 hostels. Area I has 90 units, Cosgrin 59, Phikwe Primary 120 and McAlpine 100. This gives a total of 369 units with close to 1000 occupants. This number is too large and lead to a crisis in the event of a serious disease outbreak. We hereby take a look at some of the factors influencing the behaviour of Hostel dwellers and the effects thereof:
*Poor housing and infrastructure*Overcrowding*Family Disorganisation*Poverty*Substance abuse and Addiction*High risk sexual behavior
Poor Housing and Ablution facilitiesIt has been known for a long time that the kind of houses people live in affects their health. Although bad housing is not the only reason why people become ill, it is highly linked with other things (kind of job, income, nutrition, and the quality of health care etc) that also influence people's health.Housing conditions for the workers who stay in the hostels are very poor. The hostel compounds are poorly constructed, with unplastered walls and poor insulation and ventilation. These are very cold in winter and generally unbearable during the hot summer season. Airway infections are very common here due to air quality issues.Ablution and other facilities are shared, therefore unhygienic and a source of diseases. This kind of living is conducive to the spread of Hepatitis B, and diarrhoeal disease.
OvercrowdingThe hostel dwellings are so small that they can barely accommodate a single bed. They are designed for single living as they provide no privacy, therefore encouraging and perpetuating family disorganisation. These conditions also expose children to early sexual experiences; as in instances the miners would have a live-in female companion or wife and subsequently children. The new partner and children end up living in this single room, which was initially designed for one person, which results in overcrowding and a spread of disease such as Tuberculosis (TB) and other diseases relating to the breathing system and the lungs, like bronchitis, croup, and pneumonia. Skin diseases, for instance scabies and athletes foot are also very common in people who live in overcrowded dwellings. With people living so closely together in such small spaces, both skin diseases and infectious diseases get passed on very easily and quickly.
PovertyHigh unemployment rates for women and the youth in the communities in and around these barracks have serious implications with regard to the prevalence and spread of HIV, especially when these communities are in close proximity to working 'men with money' and very little to spend it on except women and alcohol. These men become an attraction to the poor unemployed women and girls. There are situations where women have offered their children to men in order to get continuous financial support for the family. Although this can be interpreted as a subtle form of prostitution and child abuse, overt prostitution is commonplace in these communities. Poverty levels are perpetuated when migrant contract workers would return to their rural homes and leave the local women and children to fend for themselves.
Substance abuse and Addiction _Mine barracks offer very limited recreational activities and entertainment. The little money earned by hostel dwellers is generally spent on women or sex workers who may fill the workers'(temporary) emotional and sexual needs and on alcohol and some other drugs.Boredom and loneliness seem to be the main contributing factors to alcohol and drug abuse. Alcohol remains the most commonly abused drug, followed by dagga (cannabis). The overall prevalence of alcohol misuse among hostel dwellers is very high.
High risk sexual behaviourResearch done by Jochelson K, Mothibeli M, Leger JP and published in the International Journal of Health Services way back in 1991, stated that 'the migrant labour system is based on 'hostels' where male mine workers live in barracks for long periods or indefinitely, separated from wives and families. Men pass the time drinking and seeking female companionship and sex, either as long-term sexual partners, casual short-term partners, or cash clients. The system takes a toll on marriages, with high rates of divorce and abandonment, leaving many women, who are then rejected by their families, with prostitution as their only subsistence option'.The migrant labour system has created a market for prostitution in mining towns and geographic networks of relationships within and between urban and rural communities. A section of the migrant workforce and a group of women dependent on prostitution for economic support appear especially vulnerable to contracting HIV infection since they are involved in multiple sexual encounters with different, changing partners, usually without condom protection. Furthermore, sexually transmitted disease morbidity is extensive in the general and mineworker populations. Historically, migration facilitated the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV. Consequently, today Selebi Phikwe has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the country. Though this prevalence can not be fully blamed on the hostels, there is no other information that absolves them.
Conclusions*Barracks and hostel dwellings are conducive to a variety of health and societal tribulations with long term effects and therefore should be abolished.
*The factors influencing certain behaviours among hostel dwellers are interlinked and intertwined. Poor housing facilities, poverty, sexual behavior etc. are all linked and influence each other
*Demographic mobility and rapid urbanisation have been identified as one of the key underlying determinants of the rapid spread of the HIV epidemic in Botswana. More aggressive and targeted interventions will go a long in influencing behavioural change.
*Family units and recreational facilities should be provided by BCL mine to its workers to encourage normal family life and inclusion in social structures
*Mohwasa is BNF Information and Publicity Secretary