21 Sep 2015

In the quiet and tranquil settlement of Here, a tiny rural community on the periphery of Rakops and Medical in the Boteti Sub-district, residents have come together in an effort to improve the impoverished settlements’ economic well being by creating employment.

Here is made up of mainly the Basarwa ethnic group who relocated from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, some from the cattle posts around Rakops and New Xade which is a place in gradual progress. 

Residents have united with dedication and focus in supporting and rallying behind the community’s Multipurpose Society, Xere’s main source of income, employment and economic activity.

Owing to their admirable ability to work as a team and collectively to ensure that the settlement’s cooperative society prospers, the community has seen their Multipurpose Cooperative Society grow exponentially, expanding in leaps and bounds into a remarkable success story worthy of praise and emulation.

According to Nkhumisang Lesheto, a resident of Xere who is employed as the manager of the society, the multipurpose cooperative started trading in September 2014 as a community based business with the aim of promoting the social and economic interests of members of the community. 

She said they started by selling food, clothing, fresh produce, hardware and other personal and domestic consumer goods in the settlement.  

Because of the group’s dedication to seeing their rural settlement grow, the cooperative diversified its portfolio and is also currently the main supplier of food, toiletry, fresh produce and other consumables to the destitute people as well as orphans and vulnerable children in the tiny village. 

She said owning to its success, its membership also grew and currently there are 33 members, five committee members and three staff members.

“I was selected to lead the society because I was the only one in the settlement who had done computer studies and had trained for a few months at Mopipi Cooperative Society. 

Our society currently employs three staff members, who are the manager, safety cashier and the cleaner and we supply food rations to various beneficiaries in Xere” she explained.

The cooperative also has a healthy bank account with a bank balance of P164, 449.00. Boteti Sub- district Council chairperson, who is also councillor for Toromoja, Mr Solomon Cornelius said it is now evident that the present structure for the society is too small and “therefore we are looking at ways to helping the group expand its shop,” he said.

He said he was happy with the quality service that the Multi-purpose Co-operative renders to the community as it also supplies both consumer and agricultural products to the community at large. 

He said he was proud that affirmative action was also working in the small settlements of Mmea, Kedia and Khwee.

“There are at the moment 13 incoming generating projects in those remote locations which are four bakeries, four sewing businesses, one lamb production project and one handy craft establishment, a cooperative shop and two tannery projects are also active and fully operational.”

He said all the projects have been made successful and possible through the implementation of government affirmative action initiative which seeks to bring services closer to the people who dwell in very remote areas.  

He complained about unavailability of services in remote locations, noting that people are forced to travel as far as Makalamabedi to Letlhakane having to traverse more than 300km for a service that costs P10 or less. He said it is his dream and intention to see that the situation changes. 

This, he said can be achieved if services were introduced in Rakops to cater for villages and settlements in the periphery. He said the council will introduce road maintenance, education and economic planning, physical planning as well as arch and building maintenance services in Rakops before the end of  this financial year. Ends