Unemployment haunts TakatokwaneDutlwe residents
TAKATOKWANE: At a glance, Takatokwane and Dutlwe in the Kweneng District are like any other village until one gets to appreciate the lifestyles of the inhabitants. On Friday, The Monitor visited the two villages to chat with the area councillor, Johane Gaosafelwe. He revealed his worries about the lack of opportunities and unemployment in the villages. Gaosafelwe said poverty hangs over the majority of the villagers, as both the youth and elderly people alike mostly depend on Ipelegeng for their source of income.
He pleaded for investors to create jobs for people in his area as there are no job opportunities in the villages. The councillor revealed that residents of these villages, which are situated west of Letlhakeng, are mostly made up of two tribes, Bakgalagadi and Basarwa, who are the most poverty-stricken because many are illiterate.
“The economic activity for many of them (Basarwa in particular) mainly comprises cattle herding for the men and housework for the women, in addition to gathering wild berries and fruit. Walking around the villages most of the youth are seen lazing about doing nothing, while others are always gathered around drinking spots drinking their sorrows away,” he said.
He added that there are so many destitute who depend on food baskets from government. Gaosafelwe pleaded with the government to create more job opportunities for its people here to empower them. However, he applauded the government for having started instilling a love for education amongst Basarwa children. He stated that despite these efforts some learners continue to drop out of school and instead follow their parents to the cattle posts. The area councillor said he has been holding meetings at cattle posts because changing the mindset of his people towards education, especially Basarwa, is one of his priorities.
“I have been visiting cattle posts holding meetings addressing parents and schoolgoing children on the importance of taking their education seriously. We do not have enough facilities to create employment for our youth and this situation might be the one contributing to drunkenness and crime currently rife in the villages,” Gaosafelwe said. Gaosafelwe said they have enough land to allocate business plots hence he implored capable investors to take advantage of this situation and apply for plots and invest in their villages to create jobs for inhabitants. He revealed that the villagers travel long distances to do their shopping as far as Letlhakeng which is situated more than 100km away.
“We do not have a shopping complex or big shops that can help employ more people in this area. I am pleading with investors to come and open big shops here because the buying power is high, especially in Takatokwane where the population is higher because of civil servants for example teachers at the primary school and others at the unified secondary school. We also have a few at the clinic and the village’s brigade,” he said.