US embassy cable - 05GABORONE411

UNCLAS  GABORONE 000411 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, BC, SAN/CKGR Relocation 
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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