If Batshwarateu had their way, they would place an advert in a newspaper recalling the former district commissioner to Mochudi to return to the village for completion of the unfinished work she left when she was transferred to Gaborone a few years ago. When Same Samapipi was transferred on promotion to Gaborone, she had been working on a plan to construct a single lane bridge across the Notwane River at a crossing point called Phalane in Mochudi. The project is estimated at the cost of more than P48m.The idea of such a bridge was conceived by a group of farmers led by Letlotlo Kopong, Kenneth Morokotso and Moruti Setlhabi in 2008.
Thirteen years down the line, it has not got off the ground and there are no signs that construction will ever commence due to failure to honour promises made. The project was purely a self help project aimed at ensuring easy access to the farming areas north -east of Mochudi. They started off by clearing the road leading to Ramokolonyana and Magogodi lands. The going did not become as simple as they had thought. They then approached Wame Samapipi who became supportive of the project. Through her involvement, the district council got involved by providing JCB to help debush road curves. Not only that. Samapipi established a steering committee drawn from the four local authorities, the district administration, district council, tribal administration and the land board to coordinate the project. She became its chairperson. She was so resourceful that she introduced the pioneers of the project to the business community in writing.
The second high ranking government official to get involved was the former Minister of Agriculture, Christian De Graaff who immediately directed that ipelegeng resources be utilized in the clearing of trees along the road. Soon thereafter, President Mokgweetsi Masisi got involved when he was still the vice president. He visited the side upon being asked to help. He is quoted in the Batswarateu files as having directed that since funds were available, “poor farmers should not be required to fund the project from their family resources”. Consequently, it would appear that it was Wame Samapipi who gave the group the name Batshwarateu in appreciation of the work the men had been doing.
Following her transfer, work on the project began to slow down. Meetings were irregular, some of the promises earlier made not fulfilled and the steering committee ceased to function. Last April the district commissioner, Mompoloki Mochanang wrote to the Batswhwarateu informing them that he had transferred the project to the Umbrella Village Development Committee. But since that transfer, there has been no contact between the Umbrella and the Batshwarateu to map the way forward. Before the transfer of the project to the Umbrella, Batshwarateu had been expressing concern about lack of progress to the district commissioner.
In turn, the district commissioner admitted in a letter of November 2017 that indeed there had been delays which were “occasioned by other pressing official engagements and not necessarily by the unavailability of some invitees”. The DC’s letter concluded with an assurance that “we will engage each other so as to address the implementation challenges that the project has to ensure its successful completion”.
Blaming failures on Covid-19 is widespread in government nowadays. But in this case, it would be a big joke for anyone to try to blame the failure of this project on the pandemic. This project was conceived in 2008 and the pandemic only came in 2019. Again for the umbrella to fail to make contact with the Batshwarateu since April when the project was transferred to them is unreasonable. It only needed five aside to map the way forward. Similarly, the district commissioner should have followed up his letter to the umbrella to ensure that action was taken on his instruction especially that he was aware that the Batshwarateu were concerned about the delay on implementation of decisions. He was also aware that at some stage, the Batshwarateu approached the office of the president requesting for a meeting with him to brief him on what they were experiencing since his visit to the side, especially the non conformity with his instructions. The meeting was cancelled at the eleventh hour due to bureaucratic decisions.
Why should citizens be prevented from meeting their own democratically elected president? My understanding of President Masisi is that he is a leader who welcomes everybody who wants to meet him either at his office or at the state house. This was the case during the presidency of Sir Ketumile Masire and Festus Mogae. Unless the bureaucracy has something to hide, there is no reason for denying citizens the chance to meet with their president.
The bridge project has been experiencing problems after problems. There was a time when the Batshwarateu were warned not to temper with the course of the river when they drilled holes into the river to see if there could be rock obstacles for the bridge’s pillars. Even when they spoke of removing fallen trees from the river because they were blocking the flow of the water, they were told never to temper with the river. How does bridge construction or removal of fallen trees temper with the course of the river? Come on people. Hundreds of gardens have been established on the banks of the Notwane River for easy utilization of its water. Is this tempering as well? T
here are thousands of bridges across the country. One may ask what is it that was done which cannot be done to the Phalane bridge so that it is not seen as tempering with the course of the river? To a lay man’s understanding, tempering would be when one attempted to block the flow of the river water or redirect its flow or tries to expand its width. Moving abroad, we learn that Ohio University in the United States stands on a land reclaimed from the river. Perhaps that could be tempering because it resulted with a portion of the course of the river being diverted. The city of Singapore seats on land reclaimed from the sea. Similarly, parts of the Netherlands seat on land reclaimed from the sea. This is what amounts to tempering. The question one may ask is, when is tempering with the sea unlawful and when is it lawful?
The proposal to construct a bridge at that river crossing point is a well reasoned idea. Available facts speak in full support of this project. Egos and bickering can only help frustrate the continuation of what otherwise was started in good faith. The only thing which should delay construction work should be unavailability of funds. That bridge would provide accessibility to the farming community on the North-eastern part of the district. The district has developed potential arable land of 25,500 hectares, out of which the eastern accounts for 10,000. Out of 111,600 cattle population, about 30 percent of cattle farmers use Phalane crossing point to access most of the northern and eastern parts where the Ministry of Agriculture has built 25 crushes (cattle handling facilities. The facility is expected to enable farmers to benefit adequately from government support programmes such as ISPAAD, LIMIT and cattle livestock annual vaccination campaigns.
The history of this project shows that feasibility study has been conducted, establishment of the position of crossing has been identified, the plan is available and geotechnical investigation is complete. While construction of the bridge experienced unreasonable delays, a Good Samaritan arrived and constructed a foot bridge next to where motor vehicle bridge is to be built. The Rasesa based drilling company, De Wet Technology Group spread its well known philanthropic work for the community by building a steel foot bridge within weeks of hearing a pathetic story of a man having drowned at that crossing point while trying to cross from his lands area a few years ago. Company spokesman, Jan De Wet spoke of giving back to the community when contacted. The foot bridge is strong enough to carry ten pedestrians at a time.
