Taolo Lucas: Is he a political genius or downright lucky?
Helped fight cattle rustling in Bobirwa Complexities around compensation for field owners delay land allocation in Bobonong
Time and circumstance have certainly favoured Bobirwa Member of Parliament, Taolo Lucas, who finds himself a beneficiary of a sudden windfall of developments in his constituency.
Lucas is one hell of a lucky man. Among the raft of initiatives that have been successfully implemented in the constituency, he is credited with curbing the notorious cattle rustling problem that has besieged and impoverished residents for time immemorial.
Lucas came into Parliament having tried and failed for 20 years or four successive elections. He faced hefty issues such as chronic youth unemployment in the area, abject poverty occasioned by foot and mouth, destruction by elephants and cross border crime, land allocation issues and inadequate infrastructural development, as well as the crisis of the health sector in the area.
He is a former senior Lecturer at the University of Botswana and a holder of two Masters Degrees, on Social Work from the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada and another in Public Administration from the University of Botswana.
He is also a thoroughbred politician and current Vice President of Botswana Congress Party ( BCP) – he cut his political teeth with the Botswana National Front ( BNF) in the early 1990s where he held different positions including that of Policy Chair, Gaborone Central Constituency Chair and South- Central Regional Secretary. At the BCP, as one of its founding members, Lucas has served as Policy Chair, National Organising Secretary and Publicity Secretary among others.
Reflecting on the constituency since he took over as MP in 2019, Lucas does not want to claim credit alone, but recognises the contribution of other stakeholders including civil servants, as well as cabinet Ministers for the support rendered. He said one of the greatest threats to livelihoods in Bobirwa when he took over as area MP was and “still is cross- border livestock rustling perpetrated by Zimbabweans”. The scourge of cross border livestock theft had existed for four decades and reduced many Babirwa to abject poverty and destitution when he took over as MP.
“As MP, I played my part to address the challenge so did other stakeholders that included traditional leadership through Mephato, the security sector including the Police, Special Support Group ( SSG) and Botswana, as well as Office of the District Commissioner and the Local Council through its various structures.” His specific role was to sensitise parliament about the scourge of livestock rustling through debates and presentations, as well as regular pointed questions on the challenge. “I also ceaselessly engaged the Minister of Defense and Security, Kagiso Mmusi.
“I made it my business to report all incidents of livestock rustling that Semolale and Bobonong Police informed me of to his office. I must thank Mmusi and Commissioner of Police, Keabetswe Makgophe for their cooperation and responsiveness as I persistently engaged them. The two deserve special commendation. “Through my persistence on the matter and the efforts of communities of Mabolwe, Semolale and Gobojango who made representation to the Office of the President, then President Dr. Mokgweetsi Masisi set up a Commission of enquiry led by Gabriel Seeletso to look into the challenge.
“I made a written submission to the Commission, the highlight of which was to request Government to put in place a Special Livelihood Package for all who lost livestock to cross border livestock rustling,” Lucas told Botswana Guardian in an interview. Through this multi- faceted, multi- stakeholder and community inspired approach, the challenge of cross border livestock rustling has abated and his footprints as MP are clear to everyone. Further, there is also a compromise of compensation to affected people which he strongly advocated for during the Commission hearings. “President Masisi during his address to Babirwa in Semolale promised Special Purpose Vehicles to clear roads along the border and drones to heighten security along the border with Zimbabwe. I have pushed and await his delivery on the promise. I must say more than ever before in our area, there is hope that the scourge of cross border livestock rustling will be defeated,” he said, adding that he is happy to be only a part of the massive effort. Although Lucas has every reason to smile, his constituency is still experiencing some challenges that need attention, among them, the residential plot allocation across the area. Of course, progress has been achieved and residential plots have been allocated in Lepokole, Molalatau and Tsetsebye.
In Semolale and Mothabaneng residential plots that exceed the waiting list will be allocated soon as most of them have been processed. With the highest number of people on the waiting list, Bobonong has experienced challenges in residential plot allocation mainly due to complexities around compensation for field owners whose land was surrendered to the sub land board.
Stakeholders continue to work with the land board to arrest the Bobonong, Mathathane and Gobojango land allocation challenge.
“We have also through the CCP projects helped to reticulate water to areas that were not covered by WUC”.
Lucas revealed that the Office of MP has also been a beehive of activity providing advisory, advocacy and referral services for different categories of clients. At the last count over 3 600 people had sought assistance of one form or the other from the MP’s office.
“Youth have also been assisted with CV writing, online job applications and enrolment into the Department of Labour database for job seekers”.
His office has also worked with VDCs and Local
Council to help improve access to productive areas. “We mainly collaborated with stakeholders to erect drifts as well as help reconstruct bad patches of masimo roads.” Their major challenge presently is reticulating water from Thune Dam to the five villages of Lepokole, Gobojango, Mabolwe, Semolale and Mothabaneng. The project has stalled at tendering stage.
The building of Bobonong 70 bed hospital and Level 1 Primary hospital at Tsetsebye have also been delayed thereby resulting in congestion at existing health facilities. There is also the problem of the bad state of Bobonong Lepokole and Mathathane Mathabane roads.