WESTERN BOTSWANA: STILL STRUGGLING DESPITE GOB

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 GABORONE 000235

SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF/S,AF/RSA, DRL
STATE PLEASE PASS TO USAID

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/19/2019
TAGS: PGOV ECON SENV PHUM PINR BC
SUBJECT: WESTERN BOTSWANA: STILL STRUGGLING DESPITE GOB
PROGRAMS

Classified By: DCM Philip R. Drouin for Reasons 1.4 B & D

1.(U) SUMMARY: PolOff traveled to Ghanzi District and met
with local government officials to discuss GOB efforts to
improve the local economic situation. However, difficult
issues hamper GOB efforts to provide economic opportunities
in Ghanzi - including isolation, lack of will by residents
and poor educational opportunities. PolOff also discussed
the issue of hunting rights in the Central Kalahari Game
Reserve (CKGR) for the San ethnic group. While San with
permits can currently hunt in designated areas adjacent tothe CKGR, hunting is
currently strictly banned witin the
reserve, and poaching concerns make it unikely that this ban
will be lifted, even for Sanwith special permits. END
SUMMARY.

2.(U) Ghazi District is a large, sparsely-populated area in
the west of Botswana, sharing a border with Namibia and
including the vast Central Kalahari Game Reserve. According
to the 2001 census, Ghanzi District has 32,000 residents,
many of whom are categorized as destitute. Economic
opportunities, even within the district's largest town, also
named Ghanzi, are extremely limited. The town of Ghanzi is
isolated. Although located on a good road, which runs around
the perimeter of Botswana, it is over seven hours drive from
Gaborone to Ghanzi and a three-hour drive from Ghanzi to
Maun. In February, PolOff traveled to Ghanzi to meet with
government officials, NGOs, and representatives of the
Basarwa minority ethnic group, commonly referred to as the
San or "San Bushmen" in the Western media. In Ghanzi town,
PolOff met with local government officials, including
then-District Commissioner Jefferson Siamisang, employees of
the Department of Wildlife, and officials from the Remote
Area Development Project. Poloff's visit to San communities
Xade and New Xade and observations about the San community
will be reported septel.


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District Commissioner
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3.(C) PolOff met with then-District Commissioner Jefferson
Siamisang, who said that many obstacles hamper GOB efforts to
provide economic opportunities in Ghanzi. In addition to the
district's geographic isolation, the DC cited the social and
economic situation of the people as problematic. He
explained that most Ghanzi residents had been on public
assistance for many years, although this welfare program was
only designed to be a short term benefit. He felt that
Ghanzi residents were demoralized and were losing their
motivation to work. According to Mr. Siamsang, many
residents now feel entitled to the free services provided by
the GOB. In his view "many people (in Ghanzi) would likely
remain categorized as destitute permanently." He said the
GOB has tried to offer programs to make residents more self
reliant, but there has been little long-term interest from
the residents in these programs.

4.(U) The District commissioner also highlighted the
region's high HIV/AIDS and alcoholism rates as factors
hampering growth. The Commissioner conceded that the GOB
needs to do more to improve the quality and the conditions of
the education system in Ghanzi, but stated that other
stakeholders - parents, teachers and schoolchildren, were not
doing their part in improving schooling.

5.(U) However, the District Commissioner did point to many
efforts made by the GOB to improve the situation in Ghanzi.
The GOB's development budget for Ghanzi District has
continued to grow. The GOB will focus on expanding drought
relief projects in the area. Additionally, the GOB will look
to expand school facilities and government buildings and
extend the electricity grid to two new villages, including
the San village of New Xade. Plans have also been made to
increase the amount of roadwork in the area, including paving
the road between Ghanzi and New Xade. According to Siamsang,
the GOB emphasizes labor-intensive development projects that
can both improve the district and provide employment
opportunities, mostly unskilled labor, to the local
population.

6.(U) The District Commissioner also discussed Botswana's
upcoming 2009 general election. The Independent Electoral
Commission held three voter registration drives in the Ghanzi
District - one in late 2008, one this past January and one in
late March. As a result, the District Commissioner says that

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around 80% of the district's eligible voters are now
registered, which is higher than the national average of
50-60%. As the population is spread widely around Ghanzi
District, polling stations will be placed in towns, villages,
and even on rural cattle posts under temporary tents.

7.(C) Biographical Note: Mr. Jefferson Siamisang is seen as
a fast-riser within Government, and at our February meeting
he told us he was being considered for a position in
Gaborone. He has since been moved back to the capital to
become the Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of
Works and Transport. Mr. Siamsang is outgoing and forthright
in his answers to questions. The Ministry of Local
Government has not named a new DC for Ghanzi District. End
Note.


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Department of Wildlife
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8.(U) Department of Wildlife officials stationed in Ghanzi
supervise Department of Wildlife employees throughout the
District, including in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.
The Department of Wildlife has three camps within the CKGR to
base their anti-poaching, fire surveillance and fence
monitoring work. The Wildlife officials told Poloff that
they were being asked to do a lot, and sometimes too much,
with their limited personnel and equipment resources. In
fact, they stated that the Department of Wildlife has no
capacity to fight the veldt fires that often burn during the
winter in Botswana. In discussing the wildfires of 2008,
they stated that while the fires were large, Botswana had
suffered larger fires in 1996 and 2001, though they had not
received as much press coverage as in 2008.

9.(U) During the past year, Botswana newspapers reported on
an outbreak of rabies in the CKGR. The Wildlife officials
were quick to say that they thought rabies had been present
in prior years, but that no testing had been done to confirm
this. However, this year Wildlife employees conducted
monitoring and sampled dead animals to determine the cause of
death. They stated that they thought this would become more
useful in future years, when this year's sampling might form
a baseline for scientific study and comparison.

10.(U) Wildlife populations in the CKGR are generally
stable, with the exception of springbok and giraffe, which
are declining. There are currently seven functioning
boreholes within the CKGR to support wildlife populations.
One area of concern that the Department is monitoring is the
"edge effect" - where predators from within CKGR leave the
reserve and hunt on the easier prey found on the farms
bordering the CKGR. Reports of predators killing farm
animals are increasing, as are tensions with the local
farmers whose animals are being killed.

11.(U) Poloff also asked the Wildlife officials about
whether or not the San have been allowed to hunt within the
CKGR. According to the Wildlife Department, no permits have
been issued to members of the San community to hunt within
the CKGR. Instead, they have been given permits to hunt, at
subsistence levels, in three specially designated areas that
are adjacent to the reserve. Access to these areas is
extremely limited, and it might take a San hunter living in
the CKGR a day or more to walk to the designated hunting
areas. However, the Wildlife Department officials thought it
was unlikely that the San living in the CKGR would be issued
licenses to hunt within the CKGR. There is an existing ban
on all hunting within the CKGR. Also, the Department of
Wildlife is having difficulties monitoring the hunting limits
in the three specially designated areas adjacent to the
reserve. They are concerned that the San may not be
accurately reporting the animals they have killed, as is
required under their current permits. The Wildlife
Department officials observed that often the San do not
report a kill unless Wildlife officials directly question
them about it. Finally, the Wildlife officials have
discovered both poachers and licensed San over-hunting and
selling the animals.


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Remote Area Development Program
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12.(U) PolOff met with two women who work with the GOB's
Remote Area Dweller Project ("RAD") in Ghanzi - Mrs. Lesgo

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Soutie Visagie, who has worked with the project for 28 years,
and Ms. Patricia Keolobale Tirelo, who has worked with the
project for 11 years. The RAD project was begun in 1974 and
focused exclusively on the Basarwa people, but was expanded
in 1978 to focus on all people who were remote dwellers. The
project hopes to create economic opportunities in areas where
few, if any, exist. In Ghanzi the RAD program has 19 staff,
all but five of whom come from Ghanzi District.

13.(U) The RAD project contracts with a training and
innovation center in Kanye (near Gaborone) to provide
training to the participants in its Ghanzi program.
Vocational training is available in numerous areas including:
sewing, baking, carpentry and brick molding. Mrs. Visagie
says that her office lets the remote dwellers decide what
economic opportunities interest them in order to increase the
chances of success. The initial, beginner level, training
typically last six weeks and is held in Kanye. Graduates of
the program are given the opportunity to work in their field
using start up supplies supplied by the RAD project. After
working for four to six months and improving their skills,
participants are offered an "upgrading" course, which also
lasts 6 weeks to further improve their skills.

14.(U) Mrs. Visagie pointed to two success stories. The
first is the New Xade sewing group. This six-women group has
been in existence for a couple of years and is now taking
orders from the GOB to provide school uniforms to some of the
local schools. The second success story is a brick molding
company. Although the gentleman who owns the company is
blind, he has been very determined and has been able to
establish a thriving brick molding business, which now
supplies many local building projects.

15.(U) However, these are some of the few projects that have
been successful. Mrs. Visagie admits that the vast majority
of RAD's projects do not work in the longer term. In the
majority of failed cases, lack of commitment by the
participants was the key reason for failure.

16.(U) In an effort to educate remote dwellers about the RAD
project, project employees hold workshops at remote farms to
tell people about their work and to promote self-sustainable
economic opportunities. The RAD project also holds
educational campaigns to tell people who are still living in
remote areas about the programs and about governmentally
funded settlements available to them in town.


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COMMENT
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17.(C) COMMENT: While it appears that the GOB is making
some efforts to improve the economy and create jobs in the
remote and poor Ghanzi District, all government employees
with whom PolOff spoke complained about district residents'
lack of motivation to improve their standard of living and to
become self-sufficient. However, it seems that there are
only a few types of employment in Ghanzi and envorons that
are being offered to the residents, and too many of them
tend to revolve around bottle shops pr shebeens. Even jobs
through government-sponsored training are sparse and lacking
promise. Perhaps as the GOB improves Ghanzi District's
infrastructure, additional economic opportunities may be
created. Currently, Ghanzi is one of the largest beef
producing regions in Botswana, but its cattle must be shipped
to Botswana's only meat-packing plant in the eastern part of
the country for slaughter and processing. Perhaps another
slaughterhouse closer to where the beef are being raised
would be advantageous. If not, some other type of larger
scale industrialization or job creation will likely be needed
to truly propel the district out of poverty. END COMMENT.
NOLAN