Edition 586 20 - 27 January 2012

Friday the 13 th proved a very unlucky day for the motorist who drove his car on to the raised traffic circle in the centre of Maun. As these pictures show, the car was extensively damaged as well as the memorial in the centre of the circle. It remains a mystery how the car was “steered” over a relatively high ledge and onto the circle. Pictures by Bright Kholi

DREAM COMES TRUE FOR ZEBRAS

The Zebras make their dream debut at this year's African Nations Cup (AFCON), getting underway in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon tomorrow (Saturday), but any team that takes the Zebras lightly will be doing so at their peril. The Zebras will open their account in Group D against Ghana at the Stade de Franceville Stadium on Tuesday (January 24) in Franceville, Gabon (kick-off 5pm Botswana time). At the time of going to press, it was still not clear whether national broadcaster BTV will be showing the games as the Botswana Football Association (BFA) is battling to find about US$6-million needed to secure the broadcast rights. In addition, the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) is under pressure to ensure that the power load shedding schedule does not interfere with the finals – in particular the Zebras games. Zebras posted a very impressive run to qualify for the finals with a round of matches from a five-team group that included top sides like Tunisia, Togo, Malawi and Chad. It was a feat that earned Botswana the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Team of 2011 Award ahead of the star-studded Côte d'Ivoire, Tunisia and Niger squads. “I am very happy,” coach Stanley Tshosane said yesterday. “For the first time qualifying for the final tournament and at the same time being the first team to qualify and win this award. It is a very great achievement, which will encourage us to work harder because now people are expecting more than this from us. “This was a team effort as we stuck together and we have been rewarded as a team.” Tshosane has transformed the team within three years but will have to wait until after the finals for a new contract. They will be one of the best-prepared teams as they have held lengthy training camps in South Africa and Cameroon and also played several warm-up games, including a goalless draw in Nigeria, a 1-1 draw with Namibia and a goalless draw against Zimbabwe at home. Meanwhile, the Zebras continue to reel with shock following confirmation that their captain Dipsy Selolwane will miss the country's first ever Africa Cup of Nations match.   “It is a fact that Dipsy will miss the match because of suspension,” BFA's Tlhagiso Sethibe said and CAF says the SuperSport United midfielder picked up two yellow cards in the last two matches of the 2012 AFCON qualifiers against Malawi and Togo.

Sethibe also confirmed that Mompathi Thuma will captain the team in Selolwane's absence. Another shock awaited the Zebras on Wednesday when winger Joel Mogorosi broke his arm during practice. Off the playing field, the players have been warned to stay away from sexual and drug activities during AFCON. Tshosane issued the warning, saying:” I don't expect any of my players to engage in sex during the tournament,” and added that “sex drains energy from a sportsperson” and, therefore, expects the players to abstain until the end of the tournament. Zebras' manager Patrick Zibochwa said “the no-sex and drug abuse issues” were among issues discussed early last week. He said he felt the area was well covered when they engaged in dialogue with the players before leaving Botswana for their 10-day training camp in Cameroon.   “A lot of players indulge in sex during international events such as the AFCON, but we guard against it through individual and group talks, we also invited experts to talk about such issues with the players,” he said. Zibochwa also warned the Zebras to look out for drug-peddlers at their base in Gabon, saying they must “stay away from them”.

BHC gets its way with Boseja houses

By Bright Kholi

The North West District Council (NWDC) has eaten humble pie as the Town and Country Planning Board overruled its decision not to allow the Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) to install a potable sewage treatment plant at its new estate at Maun's Boseja/Kubung.

The decision meant the council was forced to issue BHC with both an occupancy certificate for 111 houses and a building permit for the construction of the sewerage treatment plant which the council had repeatedly refused to issue.

The controversial issue surrounding the houses started when the NWDC rejected the application for the occupancy certificate, saying the sewage treatment plant envisaged for the houses would compromise health of communities living in the area.

The houses have been unoccupied for more than 20 months while it was discussed in boardrooms and council meetings, reaching even the highest offices. A council meeting last year adopted a resolution advising the BHC to connect the houses to the town's main sewage line.

In a dramatic turn of events, however, late last year the NWDC was shocked to learn that the Town and Country Planning Board had decided to give the BHC the go-ahead.

BHC communications manager Mookodi Seisa, in response to a questionnaire from The Ngami Times, said the NWDC forwarded the application to the Town and Country Planning Board which approved the application in September 2011.

Seisa said consequently the NWDC issued the BHC with the building permit to erect the plant, adding that the treated effluent from the plant will be re-used.

The erection of the treatment plant started in October last year and its being built in the middle of the Boseja-Kubung's residential area.

One of the major initial fears was that the BHC had intended to channel the treated water from the plant by a storm water drainage trench to the Thamalakane River. This led to a lot of resistance from residents who feared a health hazard and an environmental threat if the system were to malfunction.

Seisa conceded that a full environmental impact assessment (EIA) study was undertaken to guide the proposed installation of the plant.

“The EIA report was endorsed by Department of Environmental Affairs in April 2011. Therefore, the BHC can confirm that all environmental issues including public health have been taken into consideration and the plant poses no hazard,” he said.

Meanwhile, the NWDC public relations officer, Wada Motsamai said the Town and Country Planning Board overruled their decision and the main reason was that the system which the BHC was going to use “will be down most of the time.” She added that such a scenario would compel the authorities to discharge raw sewage into the Thamalakane River.

“It is important to note that the council and the physical planning committee which enforces the Town and Country Planning Act are operating under delegated responsibilities from the Town and Country Planning Board. Therefore, the council makes recommendations on issues and forwards them to the board for approval. However there is a possibility for the board to overrule the council's stand at times as in this case,” Motsamai said.

Seisa had anticipated that the houses would be occupied by this month.

He said for the period that the houses have been unoccupied; the BHC lost about P2.4 million in rentals at an average of P2 000.00 each.

The houses currently remain unoccupied and the installation of the sewage treatment plant is not yet complete.

However, Boseja/Kubung councillor Vepaune Moreti said “the matter is far from settled until the BHC connects the houses to the main sewage line, which he says is the most environmental friendly and sustainable thing to do.”

Moreti said council still stands its ground that the system used by the BHC was a health hazard and a threat to the environment. He said the judgment to overrule the council's decision was biased and self-serving.

“The board falls under the same ministry with BHC, so they would not judge otherwise. Everything about this is all unfair, but it will just be a matter of time before bad things start happening,” he said.

Moreti has vowed to continue making efforts to address the issue for the benefit of the residents. He has called upon non governmental organisations, especially those dealing with environmental issues to come to the rescue of the residents.

No water restrictions yet

The Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) says it will only advice on water restrictions by the end of the rainy season when the true status of the water supply in the country would have been determined.

The corporation said in a statement this week that the rainy season, which started in October last year, is expected to end in March.

It also states that the there have been some notable inflows into some dams as the Shashe and Ntimbale dams have both recorded the highest inflows with 99 % and overflowed during the past month.

Other dams have remained stagnant while some registered a decrease, especially Letsibogo, Bokaa, Nnywane and Molatedi in South Africa.

Fisheries

The coming of each New Year is looked upon as a possible bearer of good tidings for many residents of Botswana. But for the fishing communities of the country's largest aquatic systems of the Okavango and Chobe, the date has come to signify economic disempowerment.

In 2008, the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism – under which fisheries falls – introduced the annual closing season which runs from January 1 to end of February (28 or 29) to allow the fish to breed. This was a necessary conservation control measure, which we fully support.

What we, however, find appalling if not outright criminal is the authorities' failure to urgently engage their Namibian counterparts in order to achieve uniformity on the use of the shared aquatic resources of the Chobe River. After all there are many regional and bilateral statutes and forums which provides for such engagement. Both Botswana and Namibia are signatories to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Fisheries which “aims at conservation and sustainable use of living aquatic resources and aquatic ecosystems.” Specifically, Article 7 of that Protocol concerns management of shared resources including bilateral initiatives while Article 12 addresses concerns of artisanal and small-scale commercial fishing. There had also been many meetings of the Botswana-Namibia Joint Permanent Commission for Cooperation (JPCC) at which this issue could have long been addressed.

We honestly believe the concerned ministry is not doing enough, on account that the affected communities are composed primarily of the poor. Yet for such local fishing communities, fishery plays a critical role as a source of food and revenue. The currernt arrangement that unfairly allows the Namibians to continue fishing during the closed season, and sell their catch to Chobe residents, surely disadvantages the local fishing communities, and should not be allowed to continue.

In fact, Botswana should drastically review its fisheries policy to ensure these vast resources contribute meanifully to the national economy. As it is, the country's annual fish import bill for that resources stands at more than P19 million, which translates into 2,800 tons of imported fish. The country's total fish output is estimated at a paltry 139 tons. Yet the Okavango region alone has a potential annual fish yield estimated between 5,000 and 8,000 tons.

Obviously, this is a resource that can be easily exploited not only to the benefit of the local communities but also towards the diversification of our minerals-led economy.

The motorist who tried to take a short cut across the prominently placed and raised traffic circle in the centre of Maun the other night deserves a place in the history books.

The circle, with its plaque, marked the commissioning of the Nata - Maun, Maun - Shorobe, Maun - Sehithwa road projects and to the best of our knowledge has never before played host to a motor vehicle!

The car must have been going at a terrific speed to have “sailed” over the side of the circle and smash into the plaque.

The projects were funded by African Development Bank, ARAB Bank for economic development in Africa and Kuwait fund for Arab economic development.

**

Rain? Where's the rain?

That's been the cry since the festive season.

“We thought this was your set season,” tourists are asking. Quite right – it is supposed to be the wet season, but there hasn't been much rain to write home about.

The clouds scud across the skies, there's thunder and lightning but nothing worthwhile takes place.

Maybe there is something in this climate change hysteria.

**

We thought we had heard of just about everything! Now, here's the latest.

News agencies in South America are putting out a really weird story - a report citing local media said in the Belgrano neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentine, was about a man who threw the family cat at his wife.

The woman dodged and the cat sailed through an open window and plunged to the ground, hitting an 85-year-old woman, a neighbour. The victim suffered a fractured skull and was rushed to hospital, where she had to be connected to a ventilator.

The cat's condition is unknown.

**

Makes you think! The new name for the Botswana Power Corporation in these days of load shedding – BPC = Buy Plenty Candles!!

**

“It's useless to hold a person to anything he says while he's in love, drunk, or running for office.”

- Shirley MacLaine (American actress)

Slaughter of rhino must be stopped

Special Correspondent and Sowetanlive

In the first 16 days of 2012 South Africa has lost 25 rhino.

The total number of rhino poached last year stands at 443 although not all the poached rhino were reported on orders of an extremely highly ranked South African government employee, currently on suspension.

 The SA government needs to demand that the Chinese implement their obligations to CITES as a signatory to the agreement. If the Chinese continue to do nothing, sanctions should be imposed on them.

 Under no circumstances should anyone involved in any way be given bail. Rhino really and urgently need to be declared a “National Treasure” so as to enable the government to implement prison terms that fit this crime.

The demand from incensed wildlife enthusiasts is that poachers should be shot on sight and they add that if the government is not prepared to carry this out, a private company should be permitted to undertake it with powers wide-ranging enough to effectively get the job done.

Large cash incentives should be offered to anyone that comes forward with information that leads to arrests and seizures.

There are many other measures that can be undertaken.

The Chinese influence in Africa is growing so do governments, particularly in southern Africa – including Botswana - have the courage to say, “Stop now enough is enough”.

Declaring rhino a ‘National Treasure' is an obvious way to ensure the penalties match the crime. This idea has been out there for a long time, so what or why has it not been implemented?

There are now a number of people suggesting legalising the trade in horn.

They state that no one would poach rhino if we mutilated all our rhino by dehorning them.

Perhaps it is that “Hell hath no fury like a vested interest masquerading as a moral principal”.

Governments should accept the rhino poaching free for all is a declaration of war and utilize the army as such. The problem needs to be challenged as a military operation against which the poachers will meet the full force of the military establishment. Above all else the training benefits for defence forces would be immense.

Meanwhile, the South African Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, has announced her government would work with law enforcement agencies to curb rhino poaching in South Africa.

“The government views the illegal killing of this national treasure in a very serious light and will continue to fight against this crime jointly with our law enforcement agencies,” Molewa said and added that a national wildlife reaction unit had also been established. According to the minister, the return of the SANDF to monitoring the 350km border between the Kruger National Park and Mozambique had resulted in a decrease in poaching last year.

“It has been found necessary that our borders be patrolled by the South African National Defence force (SANDF). Just their presence is a deterrent,” Molewa said.

About 150 new rangers will be deployed to the Kruger National Park this year. They will add to the 500 who are already employed - “The department will implement a decision to deploy conservation specialists at the country's key designated ports of entry,” she said.

Molewa said that her department had been in talks with China and Vietnam and memoranda would be signed in the first half of this year to ensure proper wildlife tracking and enforcement.

Liquor levy increase in the pipeline

The government is said to be preparing to increase the alcohol levy by at least 10% - to at least 50% - as efforts to control liquor consumption appear to have hit a brick wall.

There has been no formal confirmation of the proposal but according to liquor traders, they have been privately warned of an impending increase.

This comes days after the government implemented regulations that bar the sale of traditional liquor from homes. According to the “Telegraph” newspaper in Gaborone, “the future of Botswana Breweries Limited (BBL) hangs in the balance.” BBL is the arm of Kgalagadi Breweries Limited trading in traditional beer and denying BBL the market that trades from homes would cut off 65% of the company's volumes, result in lower income and dismissal of staff.

According to the BBL Corporate Affairs Manager, Larona Makgoeng, only 11% of the company's volumes are in licensed outlets while 26% is in depots which at this stage are unlicensed,” says the newspaper. Makgoeng says when put into context and if fully implemented the regulations as they pertain to traditional beer may end up “being more harmful than the alcohol levy, which almost brought KBL on its knees a few years ago.”

BBL contributes about half of the Group's earnings. “The effects could be worse than those we experienced during the levy. The situation would be compounded by the fact that with Chibuku we are dealing with a delicate product that has a very short shelf life,” said Makgoeng. The levy was introduced by President Ian Khama as a means to make it more difficult for people to enjoy liquor and at the same time regulations were gazetted to change bar hours and serving hours in restaurants. However, according to surveys conducted after the implementation of the levy, there had been little or no effect on consumption. Meanwhile, shebeen owners are up in arms, saying that the regulations will put them out of business and also that families that rely on shebeen sales will be impoverished. Shebeen owners continue to sell Chibuku in their homes despite the new law regulating traditional beer that came into effect on January 1. “The government expects us to rent or build depots,” one owner said. “Where will we get the money for rental or to build such structures?” The P50 Chibuku licence fee was “just too steep” for them. The new regulations come with new trading hours: From 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. between Mondays and Thursdays, 12 noon to 11 pm, on Fridays and Saturdays, and 3 pm to 10 pm on Sundays and public holidays.

Times Sport

Pace-setters Gunners mesmerise Zungu

Nhabe region early league pace-setters , Gunners of Khwai, ran riot on Sunday afternoon demolishing the Mababe side Zungu 8-0 in a derby match.

The match turned into a one-sided affair as Gunners dominated both halves to make sure they maintained their lead in the Nhabe league with 29 points, one above second-placed Delta Winds who have an advantage of two extra games out of three from the first round to play.

Khwai, who have played their two extra games, did not want to lose focus lest they lose the leadership to the latter, who showed no mercy in their Saturday afternoon 4-0 thrashing of Fuji Rollers at the WAP grounds despite a downpour in the early minutes of the second half.

The absence of referees to officiate at the game - the referees' chairman, Jack Cassalis, had telephoned Delta Winds officials the previous day informing them that he had not appointed any referee for the encounter as Fuji was one of the teams they would not officiate for when they host other teams because of monies they owed to the referees.

Upon seeking clarification on the matter from the region chairman, Kgatho Motai, Delta Winds officials were referred to league committee members who in turn told Winds that they should honour the fixture as the referees would “maybe” change their minds and attend the match but it was not to be the case as no referee or even the match official from the league committee showed up. Despite this, a referee was nominated from the crowd to officiate and he did his job splendidly with a free flowing game that never had any of the two sides complaining.

Delta Winds welcomed back from injury their deadly striker, Kesaobaka Basimane, who has a lot of catching up in top goal scoring charts, He put himself on the score sheet late in the second half with a classic back heel finish in the absence of his co-striking force of free scoring Letso Mokhawa, who had his leg broken in a match against BOP in his team's last match in 2011.

Terrors in good comeback

Maun Terrors had the last laugh when the referee blew the final whistle signaling the end of the game, winning a tightly contested Nhabe foo9tball league encounter against the third placed Brothers of Peace team at Maun Sports Complex on Sunday afternoon.

The game was played at a fast pace with both teams attacking from the onset but went to the break deadlocked at 0-0. The second half saw BOP adding more numbers in attack with their “captain fantastic” Loeto winning every tackle that came his way and taking everything that came their way from goal-kick, corner kick, and even went on to miss a penalty in the first half.

Punk styled BOP striker, Boitumelo “B2” broke the deadlock when he beat what looked like an offside, slashing a hard grounder past Terrors' goalkeeper Khune after being put through by Collen who gave the Terrors defence a torrid time each time he had the ball on his feet.

Terrors did not lose hope despite the pressure applied by the opponents and time wasting tactics when the ball had gone out for a goal kick or throw in.

It was after the introduction of Coaster Rica that the boys in yellow found footage in the middle where the Zimbabwean international Tendai “Nyandoro” Katiyo showed his class after Loeto committed a foul 20 yards from his goal and Nyandoro cracked a long range short from the resultant free kick which beat the BOP goalkeeper hands down to level the score (1-1).

Then came the nasty part of the game when Terrors team manager DK Dikgathatso and team official Tshepi were sent off by Jack Cassalis for refusing to give him a ball that Cassalis had said should not be used when Terrors were pressing for an equaliser. After the equaliser, the match ball was kicked out of the playing field and Cassalis ordered the Terrors bench to provide the ball and the bench questioned “why this time”

Terrors then applied more pressure and as a result the BOP goalkeeper made a schoolboy error coming off his line when the defenders had the situation under control. As a result he missed the ball allowing Terrors to take the lead.

Koko snubs Tshosane

Township Rollers' last season player of the year, Sikhana Koko, snubbed the Zebras team coach Stanley Tshosane for dropping him from the final 23-stroing squad to do duty in the AFCON finals from tomorrow (Saturday).

He felt hard done by the coach, whom he said was “hiding something” from him as he did not agree to the reason given to him as to why he was axed from the final squad.

Tshosane said he dropped the speedy winger because of an injury which Koko claims was “not much of an injury” but agreed that he missed some training sessions although he had trained well with the rest of the team in Rustenburg and was fully fit to take on the African giants, unlike team mate Mompati Thuma who made the final squad despite having stayed away from training for a good part of the preparations.

He also talked about Nico United's Sunday Kelebale being called to join the squad at a latter stage and therefore the question of match fitness was not a reason enough for his axing.

Koko says he does not see himself honouring a call up to the national team as long as Tshosane is coach and does not even see his club releasing him to do duty for the Zebras.