22 Aug 2013

Heavily pregnant, Ms Keaitse Boitshwarelo makes her way to the local bus stop at the Francistown-Maun T-junction. Even at eight months pregnancy, she knows she has to walk the whole kilometre distance before she can reach the T-junction. Here she will wave down vehicles in the direction of Francistown.

Gulubane village in the north east district does not have public transport; as such the residents have to rely on willing individual motorists who unfortunately are few and far between.

 Ms Boitshwarelo says she has put all her trust in God. Though today she is on her weekly check-ups, at the time of the interview she was just going to try her luck and was hoping for the best. “I missed my doctor’s appointment last week because I waited by the junction until I gave up and went back home,” she says.

 In her state she cannot stand for long, so she sits on a rug to endure the long wait, and by the ninth month she will have to move to go and live at a place where she can easily access medical services.

 Another resident, Ms Thokozile Keeme, says that they wait by the junction for as long as it takes and on a bad day they wait for more than half a day. Those seeking medical attention such as pregnant women have in the past had to give birth at the local health post due to lack of transport.

In fact it was the lack of transportation that also led to Ms Keeme’s kiosk closing down. She says transporting her stock from Francistown became a challenge, especially because she was always charged extra for the goods she would be transporting just up to the urn-off, before she could even reach Gulubane,

“I could not make profit,” she says of her tuck shop which has not been operational for the past three years.

 Kgosi Kgosidintsi Hunyepa of Gulubane is pinning his hopes on the proposed inter lock brick road that the minister of Transport, Mr Nonofo Molefhi promised a year ago during his visit to the village. “This will be a pilot project but we’re looking forward to this development,” he adds.

 The stretch of the road from the main turn-off is dusty and bumpy, hence public transport operators refuse to operate on the route because of its bad state. If all goes according to plan the road will be paved using inter lock bricks. ENDS