Chandapiwa Baputaki
26 June 2009
Destined at one point to have been the capital city of Botswana, Lobatse has suffered so much government neglect that it is on the brink of bankruptcy and collapse.
The town nestles on a mountain range with tree major tarred main roads and a wet, cool climate. A water pipeline from Gaborone and a dam at Nnywane have led to the establishment of several important industries in Lobatse, including the recently liquidated giant transporters, Lobtrans, Blue Crystal Sugar Industries and Cumberland Hotel.
The national Radio Botswana (RB1) started operating in Lobatse before it moved to Gaborone. The main abattoir and headquarters of the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) make Lobatse the centre of the cattle industry with animals driven overland from as far afield as Gantsi, 500km away, to the BMC abattoir that has a meat and canning plant attached to it.
In the early 1960s, Lobatse had the first strip of tarred road in Botswana, a few kilometres laid especially for the Royal visit of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
Now all is turning to gloom for this small town, whose population has not grown over the past few years, according to historian, Themba Rodney Mgadla, in his paper 'The History of the Town and Area of Lobatse From the Pre-Colonial Times to 1965'.
The Lobtrans and Lobatse Cash Stores (LCS) were liquidated last year amid allegations of fraud, and as a result about 145 people found themselves unemployed overnight. The restructuring of the BMC also saw some of its employees being retrenched.
The unemployed people raised their sights to the town where the future looked promising. The purchasing power among shoppers around Lobatse went down resulting in some small shops closing.
Lobatse has been the seat of the High Court since the colonial years, hosting the High Court and the Court of Appeal before another was built in Francistown. It is an open secret that all the judges of the Lobatse courts reside in Gaborone.
Their residences in Lobatse have turned into a waste of public funds as they commute daily to their duty stations.
Then people of Lobatse were shocked after learning that a new High Court and Court of Appeal will be built in Gaborone.
"Now with the new High Court and Court of Appeal in Gaborone, who will want to work in Lobatse?" Member of Parliament, Nehemiah Modubule, asks.
Like all the people of Lobatse he knows that fewer cases will go to their court, with people opting for Gaborone to avoid travelling, and as a result that 'state of the art' court will become a white elephant with staff members facing retrenchment.
Early this week, residents of Lobatse were shocked to learn that the Ministry of Education and Skills Development has decided to permanently close the Lobatse College of Education (LCE), one of the first colleges in the country.
Many people are going to lose their jobs. The college was buying food and other necessities from the shops in Lobatse, so a lot of the shops are going to collapse.
"We have learnt that Athlone Hospital, which was supposed to be rebuilt, will now only be renovated. It was supposed to employ more people after being rebuilt, now that remains just a dream for us here," says Moggie Mbaakanyi, the specially elected MP and Lobatse businesswoman.
She said a magistrates court was in the plans but now there is nothing suggesting that the project will take off. She revealed that many business spaces have been vacant for years because most businesses have moved to other places like Gaborone and Palapye, which are buzzing with activity.
"The LCE closure is a shock to us because instead of giving something to Lobatse, looking at the situation here, they are continuing to take everything away from the residents of Lobatse. There is need for deliberate effort to see if the powers that be cannot take interest in resurrecting this town," Mbaakanyi said.
Opposition party MP, Modubule, believes it is time government looked at ways of diversifying the economy of Lobatse like they did with Selebi Phikwe. He said government introduced tax rebates for businesses to set up in Selebi Phikwe and set up a committee to look at ways of diversifying the economy of the town.
"Why can't the same be done to revive the economy of Lobatse?" he asked. He said when they ask what the LCE was making room for, the get no definite answer.
"They are just blank. It is just going to turn into ruins like the old Lobatse council building where Radio Botswana used to be. They just move things and leave their buildings as ruins making the town ugly in the process," he said.
The MP pleaded with all the people of Lobatse to stand together "to fight this thing".
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