Just under 10 years ago, the township of Mogoditshane along the Molepolole-Gaborone road was not much to look, save for Kays Filling Station and the three malls housing Choppies, Spar and Supa Save supermarkets.
Dusty sidewalks flanked by moremotala (rubber hedge) fenced residences and frequent movement of goats crossing the streets at will were a fixture.
Fast forward to 2013 and the place is teeming with activity. A newly constructed six-lane street (the first in Botswana) with tall streetlights illuminating the place at night, and the sight of parked second hand cars almost stretching from one end of the township to another have brought a different flavour to the place.
With the population having quadrupled from a mere 14,246 in 2001 to 57,637 by 2011 according to the national census, Mogoditshane is one of fastest growing places in the country.
And the insatiable demand for cheaper and more affordable imported second hand cars combined with the business community’s propensity to exploit a seemingly flourishing niche in a market, has over the past decade set the once sluggish township buzzing with activity.
The second hand car industry has, to a certain degree, provided some form of employment and rescued a few residents from the eminent jaws of poverty.
But for one Godiraone Matlhomane and his family, it has been a bitter-sweet pill to swallow. Development, like any other change in society, invariably breeds casualties. For him and his family the situation has, at least financially, given them a new lease on life while at the same time forcing them out of the only place they have called home.
He, like many others who resided along the busy Molepolole road stretching from the Holy Cross Catholic Church up to the Sir Seretse Khama Barracks, had to give way to the car industry.
After years of resistance, his family finally had to give into the constant nagging of investors looking to convert their home into a car dealership. They say identity is always tied to a place and for Matlhomane, leaving a place he had called home for 30 years was a hard pill to swallow.
“It is not an easy step to leave a place you grew in,” he says. “But like many families in the area we had our own financial struggles and putting food on the table was no piece of cake. The financial benefits were too good to ignore.”
Luckily for them, he says, they had an undeveloped piece of land on the other side of the township where they built a new home. “I even managed to buy a car,” he adds; referring, ironically, to the second hand Toyota Corolla he bought from one of the establishments.
Matlhomane says contrary to what some of their former neighbours believe they did not sell the place. “It is only a lease agreement for a specified period of time.” But some of the residents were not as smart. A former resident who spoke on condition of anonymity rues the day the second hand car dealers set foot in the township. He says his father sold their compound and relocated the whole family to Gamodubu, a small settlement along Molepolole road where he built a small two bed roomed house and squandered the rest of the money. “As I speak we have nothing much to show for it,” he says.
Being a cosmopolitan whirlpool that it has grown into, it is perhaps not surprising the diversity of nationalities that run the car dealerships in Mogoditshane. Nigerians, Ghanians, Indians, Arabic, Zimbabweans ÔÇô the list is endless. Some of the establishments have been the subject of police investigations with issues ranging from licenses to illegal drugs.
The then Police Commissioner Thebeyame Tsimako was quoted as having raised concerns about some of the businesses operating illegally and being used as fronts for drug peddling. And the eerie atmosphere one feels at some of these establishments implies the Commissioner might have been onto something.
“Which car do you want?” Is the first thing that comes out of Charles’ mouth as one of his employees guides me into his office? He jumps straight into business, no time for pleasantries.
Charles, as he prefers to be called, owns Favour Motors. For a salesman he seems a little uneasy, perhaps by the idea of being interrogated about his business dealings. Although he admits that he is not a local, he would rather not disclose his citizenship. He opened the business in 2008 after being involved in similar ventures in South Africa and Zambia.
“We have branches all over SADC,” he says. After five years of operations Charles says he will soon be closing shop. “There is no business anymore. It is not getting any better … too much competition nowadays.”
The business employs only four locals and although he could not say how, he believes the second hand car industry has developed Mogoditshane.
Sheeth Mohamed, a Sri Lankan national, runs AMT Motors and unlike Charles, he is still a novice in the local industry.
“I only started in April this year,” he says. Mohamed says however that he first landed in Botswana back in 2009 to assess the market and he was impressed. Although he says business is not impressive at the moment he has been told the situation improves every December.
Mohamed says he chose to set up in Mogoditshane because it is the ‘capital city’ of second hand car business. “It is good to do business here because when people want to buy a second hand car the only place that comes to mind is Mogoditshane,” he says. “Customers know they would be spoilt for choice here.”
Mohamed does not believe the industry has had a negative impact on the sale of brand new cars.
“People who have the capacity to buy brand new cars still buy them,” he says. “But how many people can afford to purchase a 300 000 Pula car … and how many years of saving would it take for someone who earns 3 000 Pula to buy that car?” Mohamed believes their industry has provided an affordable alternative for the ordinary Motswana. AMT Motors employs five locals whose job descriptions range from washing the cars to running errands for the business.
But all the employees have a common underlying description: salesmen. They all sell and earn commission.
Although a resident, he says he does not have much of a social life. “The kind of entertainment here is not for us (Muslims),” he adds. “People here drink (alcohol) too much.”
However lucrative the second hand car industry is, not much goes back into the Mogoditshane community. Only the likes of the Matlhomanes and those selling out their piece of land get to taste the financial benefits of the industry.
Mogoditshane Chief Alfred Dihutso says besides changing the landscape not much can be said about the contribution of the car industry to the township and its people. “They do not even employ our children,” he says. “They mostly hire Zimbabwean nationals instead.”
Dihutso says the only time they (local authorities) get involved in the business between the locals and the investors is by way of signature to approve sale/lease agreements.
But has the Mogoditshane second hand car industry affected big companies dealing in brand new cars?
“It affected us at the beginning around 2003/4 but the situation has improved. Customers have realised the cars have no real value,” says Barloworld Managing Director, Ian Utting.
“They have no equity. You cannot resell the car after five years.” Motor Centre Botswana’s Fayaz Arby shares Utting’s observations.
“I don’t think they have affected us that much. Over time people have realised they have no value for money.”
Arby believes the only real impact the second hand cars have made is on traffic congestion.
