A VISIT TO GHANZI DISTRICT: HAPPINESS IS

UNCLAS GABORONE 000411

SIPDIS


SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM BC SAN CKGR
SUBJECT: A VISIT TO GHANZI DISTRICT: HAPPINESS IS
SOMEWHERE ELSE


1. (U) Summary: Ambassador Huggins visited Botswana's
western town of Ghanzi and the San/Basarwa relocation
settlement of New Xade on March 10-11. Rural poverty,
severe dependence on government assistance, lack of
income-generating opportunities, despair among youth,
and the underperformance of the parastatal Botswana
Meat Commission (BMC) were identified by interlocutors
as dominant issues in the district. Officials
proclaimed the advantages of the relocation of the
San/Basarwa out of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve
into villages. NGOs emphasized the forcible aspect of
the exercise and the psychological trauma and cultural
disorientation it had produced. The GOB, as revealed
in a subsequent meeting with the MFA PermSec, views the
San as a group which, like other ethnic minorities in
Botswana, should use education to move forward. End
summary.

Into the Frontier Zone: Ghanzi District
--------------

2.(U) It is a truism that practically all of southern
Africa is a frontier. Botswana's Ghanzi District is
vintage: containing the vast Central Kalahari Game
Reserve (CKGR) where the mode of hunting and gathering
still provides a livelihood for remnants of various
Khoi/San-speaking groups, however diminished.
BaKgalagadi peoples, herders and agriculturalists, live
there, as do Herero-speakers, refugees from the 1905
war of extermination in then-German Southwest Africa.
Afrikaans-speaking groups, with expertise in ranching,
moved in around 1900, taking advantage of Ghanzi's
rangelands and its hydrogeology, where vast aquifers
can be tapped at shallow depth under limestone ridges.


3. (U) Ghanzi District's major source of income is the
sale of cattle to the parastatal Botswana Meat
Commission, located in Lobatse, some 600 miles to the
southeast. Transport has become more efficient in the
past few years, with the excellently paved Trans
Kalahari Highway running between Lobatse and Ghanzi,
and on into Namibia. Ghanzi town has grown over the
past five years, and district officials mentioned the
scarcity of urban plots and available land in the
immediate area of town. Ghanzi town, as district
capital, has government offices, staff housing, and
facilities, as well as the requisite hospital and
schools. Apart from that, it functions as the service
center for the outlying ranches and their population.
No industry is located there.


Problems, Problems: Any Opportunities?
--------------


4. (U) Ambassador Huggins and EmbOffs met with district
officials over lunch in Ghanzi on March 10.
Predictably, conversation turned to a list of perceived
problems. One was the low prices the Botswana Meat
Commission (BMC) pays for slaughtered cattle. Many
considered that the time had come to end the BMC
monopoly and open the trade to competition. Various
officials lamented the lack of jobs for young people
and stated alcohol abuse was a major problem.
Ambassador Huggins noted that the Trans Kalahari
Highway running up to Ghanzi should provide an economic
stimulus, and urged the district planners to poise
themselves to take advantage of this, but the response
was low-key. The Remote Area Dwellers (RAD) program
officer complained that the services provided by the
GOB were not fully appreciated by "these people."

How are you going to keep them on the farm?
--------------


5. (U) After lunch, Ambassador Huggins visited a
training site just outside of town, run by the NGO
Permaculture Trust, which is actively engaged in
several villages bordering the Central Kalahari Game
Reserve (CKGR) to assist the population in making the
transition from hunting and gathering easier for those
in the relocation villages. They have begun communal
gardens, and they have a demonstration vegetable garden
at the training site that utilizes drip irrigation,
installed with a grant from the Ambassador's Self-Help
Fund. We learned that Permaculture Trust is active in
the relocation village of New Xade, where it has also
built some sixty houses.


6. (U) ThePermaculture staff was highly critical of
the GOB resettlement policy, noting that people had
been dumped in villages like New Xade, without being


provided with sufficient shelter, support, or even
food, and decried the idea as ludicrous that the people
could transform themselves into industrious villagers,
craft-sellers, while seventy miles away from a main
road. They emphasized the arbitrariness, the lack of
consultation, and the lack of transparency in GOB
decision-making when it came to the treatment of the
San/Basarwa peoples in the district.

A Recipe for Discontent: Discrimination, not Dialogue
-------------- --------------


7. (U) Ambassador Huggins' next meeting, with two NGO
leaders, Matambo Ngakaeja of the Working Group of
Indigenous Minorities of Southern Africa (WIMSA) and
with Roy Sesana, of the First People of the Kalahari
(FPK),proved informative. Both groups represent the
interests of the San/Basarwa people of the district,
and specifically of those who were forcibly moved out
of the CKGR in January 2002. At present, the Botswana
High Court case brought in July 2004 by the First
People of the Kalahari v. GOB, is in recess. We asked
Ngakaeja and Sesana about the likely outcome. They
were skeptical but made the point that the GOB is by
attrition attempting to wear down the financial
resources of the FPK. Both considered "eviction" as a
more accurate description of what took place than the
GOB usage: "relocation." Neither believed that plans
for mining were the reason that the San/Basarwa groups
were removed.


8. (U) Sesana explained that he had visited the United
States in 2004 because he wanted to learn, especially
from Native Americans' experience, how to obtain the
ear of the government. He stated that First People of
the Kalahari accepted the support of Survival
International, the London-based NGO, although he did
not agree necessarily with its strategies nor with its
campaign to boycott Botswana diamonds. He thought it
only hardened attitudes on both sides. But he said the
alliance was a last resort.


9. (U) The GOB had consistently declined to enter into
dialogue on the question of the San/Basarwa and their
right of access to the CKGR. He and Ngakaeja were
mystified why the relocation took place. Sesana said
that the GOB will point to large schools and shiny new
buildings in the relocation villages as tokens of their
benevolent intent, but, he asked, "Where are the
Basarwa professionals that the educational system is
supposed to be turning out?" Ambassador Huggins asked
what alternative there would be in Sesana's view, and
he mentioned that ecotourism, involving the San/Basarwa
themselves, would be an option. Gradually, the
San/Basarwa would then successfully be integrated into
mainstream society. At present, he stated, people's
rights were being violated, and they had been torn away
from familiar foods, medicinal plants, environment, and
religious ties with the land. The consequence was
death in some cases, and enormous suffering in other
cases. People mourned that they could not pass on
their culture to their children.


10. (U) Ambassador Huggins asked how many persons had
been removed from the CKGR, and how many had returned.
In all Ngakaeja and Sesana estimated some 2,500 had
been evicted; some 250 persons, mostly older
San/Basarwa, were still in the CKGR, and perhaps
another 250 had returned over the past two years from
the relocation villages. Ngakaeja stated that
San/Basarwa are systematically being discriminated
against by the GOB, which moves them away from wherever
there might be an income-generating opportunity.


11. (U) He cited the case of the Tsodilo Hills,
renowned for its rock paintings, where San/Basarwa were
moved five miles away, with the consequence that
Hambukushu people now served as guides and craft
sellers there. He cited the Janatarka area in Central
District, where San/Basarwa were being forced to move,
as well as the Trans-Frontier Park, between Botswana
and Namibia, where San/Basarwa interests were
sidelined. "The land use system of the San is simply
not recognized by the government," he said, "and the
government is unwilling to enter into any discussion on
this or other matters having to do with the
San/Basarwa."

Prospects for Unity: the view from the BNF
--------------


12. (SBU) In a meeting with two opposition party local


councilors (the Botswana National Front-BNF),Mr.
Douglas Lemme and youthful Mr. Motsamai Motsamai, the
major constraint to BNF gains was identified as lack of
financing. Motsamai was clear, and contemptuous: the
way to win votes in San/Basarwa areas was through
tobacco, food, and clothes. "They believe only in hand-
outs," he said. When asked about prospects for 2009,
and cooperation between the opposition parties, the BNF
and the Botswana Congress Party (BCP),Motsamai's first
reaction was, "The BCP has learned its lesson; they
will come to us."


13. (U) Emboffs pointed out that such a stance might
not be the most diplomatic, and he agreed, saying it
would be worked out at national level. The councilors
gave the BDP government credit for its approach to the
HIV/AIDS scourge and would not change it if the BNF
came to power. They passionately disagreed, however,
with the BDP silence on Zimbabwe's crisis and expressed
their frustration with the national and regional
paralysis on this issue. They also wanted the monopoly
of the Botswana Meat Commission broken up. They
identified the lack of jobs and recreation for young
people as major problems, because the alternative, they
said, was alcohol consumption and subsequent
unprotected sex leading to HIV infections.

HIV/AIDS: Some Progress
--------------


14. (U) Ambassador Huggins stopped at Tebelopele
Voluntary Counseling and Testing Center, where director
and counselors stated that testing had increased from
an average of 60 persons per month last year to over
300 per month this year. For this, the director
credited the effective rollout of ARV therapy. At
dinner with Peace Corps volunteers that evening, the
Ambassador expressed his appreciation for their path-
breaking work in combating HIV/AIDS in the district
through community organization and awareness-raising.
On their part, the Peace Corps Volunteers related some
success stories but also noted the often inflexible and
anti-innovative nature of the Botswana bureaucratic
structures with which they have to work.


Modernizing, Collaborating. . .
--------------


15. (U) Early the next morning, Ambassador Huggins and
EmbOffs visited the San/Basarwa resettlement village of
New Xade, established in 2002, located on the edge of
the CKGR, seventy miles away on a sand and gravel road
away from the Trans Kalahari Highway, without telephone
service. Permaculture Trust extension workers had
ensured communication. We were escorted by the
District Commissioner and the RAD officer. The latter
pointed proudly to some livestock as we neared the
village: the GOB had provided these to the Basarwa.


16. (U) The village chief, Kgosi Lobatse Beslag,
greeted Emboffs. The Village Development Committee,
councilors, District Commissioner and the RAD official
joined our meeting held in the chief's office. The
discussion took place in Setswana and was translated.
A verbal list of concerns was recited: the first item
mentioned was that New Xade has insufficient
accommodation for civil servants. A storehouse for the
vegetables grown on the Permaculture garden was
required, as were recreational facilities for youth.


17. (U) Ambassador Huggins asked how people were faring
after the relocation. The answer provided by the chief
was that they were much better off. A bright young
councilor, James Kilo, who took the lead in the
discussion, echoed this opinion, but he also asked for
support for training and buildings. But people were
much better off, in his opinion, living in New Xade.


18. (U) Despite rephrasing of the question-whether
people really wanted to be in New Xade-the standard
response, no doubt also influenced by the presence of
the district officials, was that everything was fine.
When we asked about ecotourism, we were told that a
plot had been allocated for such a venture, but GOB
funds had run out to translate it into reality. When
we asked about plans for telephony, we were told that
connectivity by telephone was in the village
development plan, but much depended on the government,
and it might and might not happen in 2007 and 2008.
When we asked how people make a living, there was some
evasion, but eventually the answers indicated that


people rely on government handouts. It became clear
that everything, more or less, depended on the
government. When asked about craft skills and income-
generation, we were told that the distance and the lack
of linkages for marketing were major hurdles.

. . .and Resisting
--------------


19. (U) Only at the end of the meeting, one of the
older councilors ventured to answer the Ambassador's
question: people are not happy. While many people were
resigned to the relocation by now, many also went back
to the CKGR. People mourn for their way of life, and
regret that their children are not with them, but at
school. Another grievance was that the Game and
Wildlife Department prohibits New Xade residents who
want to visit their relatives on the other side of the
CKGR from traveling through the reserve; they have to
go around. And only some, not all, received livestock.


20. (U) Kgosi Beslag decided, at that point, that the
discussion had been sufficiently extensive. When the
Ambassador asked about a solution, the chief reiterated
the GOB line: put San/Basarwa children in hostels for
their education and their own good, and bank on the
next generation. In any case, he continued, hunting
and gathering was a miserable and doomed way of life.
You cannot stop progress. He suggested we visit the new
village clinic next.

Potemkin Village?
--------------


21. (U) The New Xade clinic is an impressive building,
dating from 2003. With a staff of 3, with a senior
nurse-matron who arrived two months ago, the facility
has beds, drugs, and supplies, but, at 10:00 in the
morning looked eerily unused. We were told patients
preferred to still go to the old clinic. Beds without
linen attested to the truth of this. We next viewed
two of the houses built by Permaculture Trust: one-room
cinderblocks, on a plot large enough to cultivate a
vegetable garden, looking comfortable. We were told
who lived in one house; when we asked who lived in the
adjacent one, we were told, "Oh, he has gone back to
the CKGR." Our tour concluded with Ambassador Huggins
greeting the assembled villagers in the central meeting
place, and so we departed New Xade.


22. (SBU) The GOB is not likely to change its position
on the CKGR. In a subsequent meeting between
Ambassador Huggins and the GOB's Permanent Secretary in
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International
Cooperation, Mr. Ernest Mpofu, the Ambassador related
his impressions gained during his visit to Ghanzi
District. He made the point that dialogue is the way
forward, and the situation of the San/Basarwa should be
reconsidered. The PermSec dismissed all such
suggestions and was averse to the argument that the
people are losing their culture. He viewed the plight
of the San/Basarwa as no different from other ethnic
minorities in the country, and he put forward again the
GOB assimilationist line. His response to the arguments
presented by Roy Sesana was: "Sesana is uneducated."
He advised the Ambassador to discuss the question with
relevant GOB ministry officials and hear the "true"
version of events. He stated that New Xade as a
location was chosen by the San/Basarwa themselves,
attracted there by the GOB's provision of water.
Ambassador Huggins's suggestions that the GOB
reconsider its approach to how government deals with
San/Basarwa and the issue of their cultural heritage
was met with thinly veiled scorn. "We were like that
ourselves," said Mr. Mpofu, "when I was young; running
after animals. But I sit here, talking to you, in your
language, because I received an education."

Comment
--------------

23. (U) This was a long-planned visit to the west of
the country, with prime objective being to gain first-
hand impressions of the results of the GOB's policy of
San/Basarwa populations out of the Central Kalahari
Game Reserve during 2002/3. While it is probably the
case that two-three years on since the move, the
greatest trauma is past, it is also clear that people
have been dumped in economically absolutely unviable
situations without forethought, and without follow-up
support. The lack of imagination displayed on the part
of the GOB is breathtaking. The GOB views New Xade as
similar to many sites of rural poverty, deserving no


special treatment. But the special tragedy of New
Xade's dependent population is that it could have been
avoided.
HUGGINS


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