Gale Ngakane
7 April 2008
Francistown — For Kiki and Tommy, playing with friends in the streets of Donga is no longer a pastime, but a full-time occupation.
From morning when they wake up, to evening, they are in the streets with other children, playing in all sorts of games, be it hide and seek, skipping rope, mantlwane or kicking around a football, which has seen better days. They bound into the house when mother calls them for either breakfast or lunch. After that it is off to the streets.
The mother, Selebatso Ikwatlhaeng has thrown in the towel as far as confining five-year-old Kelebogile or Kiki as she affectionately calls him and his three-year-old brother, Thomas to the house. She has resigned herself to keeping a hawk's eye on them as she reassures herself that at least, they do not play very far from the family's rented two-rooms. The housewife has been living in the Donga house with the children and their father Bontsibokae who is a driver for a furniture outlet in town for two years. So every weekday morning, when the patriarch of the family leaves for work, Selebatso remains looking after the children. "There was a time when we used to hire babysitters, but we have since realised that we can look after our children ourselves," she says. However, she cannot keep the children indoors for long. "At first, I would tell them not to go out, but I have since given up because they will go anyway. Otherwise, they cry and beg me such that I would feel pity for them and allow them to go out."
Though she leaves the boys to go and play, she cannot shake the fear that they can be overrun by cars. "How can I live comfortably when my kids are out playing? We hear stories of children being killed by reckless drivers on the streets. And in our streets, from time to time, you will see cars speeding past. My heart always skips a beat when I see a car speeding past because I fear it could hit one of my children," she says. She wants the council to transform an empty space opposite her home into a playground. In fact, she would want to see playgrounds in most if not all empty spaces in the town.
"The reason why our children play in the streets is because there are no playgrounds for them to go to," she says. Selebatso's feelings are common all over Francistown's townships where children resort to playing in the Streets because there are no playgrounds. Some suburbs like Area A, however, do have playgrounds.
At Somerset's East Extension, other parents are equally concerned that their children have got nowhere to play except on the streets. "It is dangerous out there. We have had incidents of children being overrun by vehicles in the streets. The council has better do something about this situation," says 37-year-old Botho Kerebotswe, a mother of four. "For me it is better now because two of my children are now schooling. Every morning they go to school except on weekends. I feel pity for parents whose children are still at home. But if there were facilities here, it would have been better because the children would have a place to go and enjoy themselves," says Kerebotswe.
The Francistown City Council authorities could not be reached for comment. The town clerk and his deputy were said to be on leave.
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