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.
