23 Aug 2017

Thousands of kilometres away from the fast city life, deep in the savanna bushes laced by calming dense brown Kalahari sands resides unique people. 

As if snapped from a tourism postcard, life here is a wonder. In the evening the view of auburn sunset against thin leaved acacia trees silhouette blends in a symphony of swirls presenting a refreshing soothing view. 

In this part of the world, children can still be seen cheerfully walking about draped in leather loin cloth with buttocks out in the open. Their hair, kinky pitch black against smooth light skin, they are a marvel to watch and inviting to interact with as they play adjacent the grass thatched mud huts. 

Constantly chatting in Senaro (Sesarwa dialect) punctuated by constant clicking of the tongue, young Xwii Qa and his friends innocently greet us as I and fellow scribes, Baleseng Batlotleng and Godfrey Mpuse enter the village of Chobokwane which lies about 100 kilometres north of Ghanzi. 

Fresh memories unfold as I soak in the surroundings and notice that akin to many villages around Ghanzi town such as Kuke, Kacgae, Qabo, Bere, Ncojane and other settlement areas, the people here share the same traditional way of life. 

They have a rich culture with a few modern buildings of a customary court, schools, clinic, and the police station. Without hesitation young Xwii Qa springs up, seemingly dusting his bare buttocks and wearing a kind smile he leads us to the village chief Txhaoxo Katshau.

 We learn from the chief that his village has over 1 000 people. Despite its beautiful landscape and the bubbly life brought about by the people, signs of poverty can visibly be seen. 

“But government goes to greater lengths to better our lives through the poverty eradication programmes,” he hastens to add and blames his subjects for lack of initiative. He says when poverty strikes there is no room for negotiations. It is either one succumbs or constantly rises above the challenge through self-motivation. I am thankful to government for creating a village for them and coming up with poverty eradication programmes and policies which have been brought to his village, Kgosi Katshau says programmes uptake and programme output has been a challenge to his subjects. 

“In the past we used to work in farms for white people, but the government relocated us from there and brought us here to give us independence where we can take up poverty eradication programmes to improve our lives,” he says. 

He notes however that there is snail pace life improvements which he pins on the people’s attitude and mindset which he says needs to change for the better. “The problem lies with us because we tend to have mental poverty, we lack the business drive and knowledge necessary to make them work for us,” he says.

 The village chief says true to the old English adage, “you cannot take a horse to a river and make it to drink water,” adding that contributing factors could be over indulgence in traditional beer despite authorised hours of operation. “People imbibe in the devil’s waters in the wee hours of the morning which impedes productivity.” 

He calls for help and buttresses that a lack of drive and letting opportunities slip through ones fingers is a serious problem that must be addressed to enable the government poverty programmes and policies to work effectively in the area.The chief calls for government to start with a mindset change in the area if it is to win the war against poverty. “There is need to begin fighting mindset change over and above everything else otherwise resources will be wasted as money is injected in projects and people end up dumping them,” he adds, his forehead folding in worry. 

Meanwhile in West Hanahai, found south west of Ghanzi, Kgosi Khoxo Xase says his village has about 720 people. 

Found seated with his extended family under a Mongana tree shade during the week in mid-morning, he said his village is also grappling with poverty and they survive merely on government handouts. 

“There is little economic activity here, we only have one primary school, a clinic and a police officer.  For the last three days there was no water in the village, we travel as far as 30 kilometres beyond New Xade on gravel road to collect water which is quite difficult,” he says. 

However he says to alleviate poverty, government has opened a community trust farm for the villagers, a cattle farm which is run by the West Hanahai board of trustees where they keep cattle and sell to Botswana Meat Commission which makes life a little better. 

To hear from local authorities, former Ghanzi deputy council secretary finance and administration, Ms Boikhutso Matenge who oversees all the aforementioned villages and others, says villagers do come forth to get government programmes and they offer training interventions. However, they noticed that the major challenge is that people need a mindset change. 

She concurs with Kgosi Katshau of Chobokwane. She says people in settlement areas still lead rural lives by maintaining their old ways of life, “When we give them projects and they encounter challenges in their projects, they may dump the project. They do not own the project as their own, they think it’s a government thing and not theirs. When the going gets tough they get back to their old way of living,” she says. 

Furthermore, Mr Matenge notes that when profit is not sufficient they tend to dump the project and don’t look at the bigger picture or explore ways of making it work which calls for interventions on mindset change. Statistics acquired from Ghanzi District Council show that 820 impoverished people in the area benefited from government poverty eradication programme and about P1.6 million was disbursed as start-up capital for beneficiary projects. 

Ms Matenge however says projects are not doing well primarily because of poor mindset change.ENDS