The unmerciful view to take is that the people that President Ian Khama took down a flight of stairs into a cave said to have dangerous snakes are still so traumatised by that experience that they don’t even want to hear mere mention of Gcwihaba Caves. The merciful one is that those among them who are still part of the government have had to put a tourism project at the Caves on hold in order to develop a management plan first.
Whatever the case, a project that once had the prestige of presidential office behind it has lost the momentum it had when Khama was still in office. The parties involved, being Khama himself and the Department of National Museum and Monuments, give diametrically opposed accounts to explain the latter.
“The project was to have been up and running by now but like many other things linked to me, they have been cut out from any other development,” says Khama who, as president, chaired a historic cabinet meeting that took place inside the Caves.
Himself a caving enthusiast, Khama sought to turn Gcwihaba Caves into a tourist venture. The Caves contain a unique geological formation of stalagmites, stalactites, dripstones and columns as well as an array of spectacular micro-formations of helictites, straws. They also support large colonies of four resident bat species. An infrastructural project was undertaken during Khama’s presidency and the aforementioned cabinet meeting happened during the commissioning of a staircase that descends into the Caves. Personally, Khama helped obtain financial and other assistance from the private sector for the tourism project and had also fostered collaboration between museum professionals and international experts.
Khama’s enthusiasm shone through when he took his ministers on a guided tour of the caves. Mmegi, which covered this event, reported that he “seemed enthusiastic to share his knowledge”, speaking “passionately at length, using caving jargon, detailing Gcwihaba history and its developments.” As revealed by the descriptive detail he can provide, that passion has not waned.
“The caves are very unique and different to any other discovered in the world,” he told Sunday Standard last week, adding that while he was in office, there were plans to fully explore the extent of caverns in the area.
“From the original one that was known, another six were found, which took several years to accomplish due to the very difficult nature of digging underground in cramped and humid conditions, sometimes through rock and with the constant danger of carbon dioxide,” he said. “Holes, some over 150 feet deep, had to be drilled through solid rock to reach the caverns underneath and then devising and assembling a pulley and cable structure to lower people up and down through a very narrow shaft into the caverns. Huge caverns, in some cases never ever discovered, were found through this manner of access from where the underground exploration and digging took place. The intention was to provide safe access by tourists under very close supervision by trained guides, into the various systems.”
Khama would have had reason to believe that the development of Gcwihaba into a tourism project would continue after he left office. That is because he was given such assurance by one of the cabinet members who descended down the stairs with him into the belly of Gcwihaba: then Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who ascended the presidency on April 1, 2018.
“We will grow your vision even after you are gone,” Masisi said at the Gcwihaba cabinet meeting.
With precise to the Gcwihaba Caves, such vision was to bring world-class tourism to a part of Botswana that still has no real tourism to speak of. Khama tells Sunday Standard that based on the uniqueness of the Gcwihaba Caves, a three-tier tourism model was to be pursued: adventure tourism, research tourism and normal tourism.
“The Gcwihaba caves system was also in line to be offered for listing as a world heritage site, which would have been Botswana’s third [ – after Tsodilo Hills and Okavango Delta]. In addition to this, Botswana Tourism Organisation had also staged a cultural festival there. BTO had also developed a stair system into the easily accessible cave for tourists and visitors to have easy access into that cave without having to go down shafts. BTO were in the process of developing a lighting experience to be able to navigate through one of the cave systems, which was going to include a bridge being built underground, for visitors to experience this spectacular cave system,” the former president says.
The lighting, which was going to be powered by renewable energy, was going to depict the cave in different lighting effects, which would not damage the environment.
“It was designed [such] that the lights switched on and off as one approached them,” he reveals.
Due to the amount of interest shown in the caves as a result of their discovery and such discovery having been written about in appropriate journals, the construction of a new campsite and airstrip was also being considered.
Khama still remembers that “Masisi announced that the caves project would continue even after I left.” Last year, however, “someone in the BTO told me they had no plan to continue with the development.”
The former president laments that a new campsite that was supplied by water from a borehole as well as staff housing and a gate house have now been “neglected.”
He adds: “Other boreholes were drilled and equipped to provide water for drinking points for wildlife to provide for visitors to witness the fauna in the area. These too have been stripped and abandoned. Eventually, another camp and airstrip were to be constructed. The nearby community were to benefit from this through employment at the sites as well as from revenues collected have likewise been let down as a result. This project was to have been up and running by now but like many other things linked to me, they have been cut out from any further development. Thus I have been unable to continue with this national project.”
The other side of the story is given by the Director of the National Museum and Monuments, Steven Mogotsi, who, in response to a question ofhow much work has been done in the last two years, says that “the main preoccupation has been the development of a management plan, which has just been completed.”
According to Mogotsi, the management plan is comprehensive and integrated in that it goes beyond Gcwihaba alone but the entire NG4 area inclusive of other caves such as Koanaka, Blue Cave and the Aha Sink hole area.
“The management plan is a blue print that covers areas such as the tourism plan for the area, community beneficiation, research and sustainable utilization of the natural resources in the area,” he says, adding that the plan will be implemented as soon as “funds become available.”
Given the current state of the national economy, that will not be any time soon.
“The main focus in the future of Gcwihaba will be tourism development, community beneficiation and empowerment as well as research. For the latter, collaborative proposals on research are being made with local and international research institutions. One such collaboration is with a French research institute that has acquired funds for research on the cave systems and hominid evolution in the Gcwihaba area in collaboration with the Botswana National Museum archaeologists, geologists and palaeontologists, the project has started,” Mogotsi says.
Khama disputes Mogotsi’s account, querying “why if you are working on a management plan, do you completely stop all developments going on which were put in place with significant cost and manpower resources for years including new facilities and equipment.” He provides the answer himself, alleging that “they are not telling the truth” and reveals that his BTO source told him about plans for the Gcwihaba project being stalled “a year ago.”
For what it is worth, both parties agree that caving at Gcwihaba is a viable commercial venture. Mogotsi reveals that the integrated management plan formulation has reaffirmed the viability and proposed further enhancement.
“The caving tourism will diversify Botswana’s tourism industry from being wildlife-based,” he adds.
