09 Oct 2019

Lately building a house has proved to be economically and emotionally taxing as prospective house owners are concerned about the type of house to build, the kind of material and even the type of paint to use.

Gone are the days when people just wanted a decent roof above their heads and could even use a house plan offered by the builder.

Modern way of building has seen some of the traditional houses known becoming less popular, except in some rural areas or settlements.

 Today middle income homes have at least a two and half house or one-roomed dwelling built out of cement bricks.

Despite that transition a handful still opt for the sun dried clay bricks as it is cheaper, and Mr Keabetswe Diane of Mabesekwa settlement is one of those.

Having observed the high cost of building material the Mr Diane saw it as an opportunity especially for those who are not into fancy dwellings. His business idea was born!

All he does is mixing soil with water, placing the mixture into moulds and drying the bricks in the open air.

 Cow dung is often added to the mixture to help reduce cracking which is then placed in a brick moulder to produce bricks.

All the are materials are free and easily obtained.

Mr Diane told BOPA that on a productive day, he produced up to 200 mud bricks using wooden moulder.

Depending on demand, he can make between P500 and P1 000 as he sells a brick for P2.

The youthful business man said that his customers were mostly residents of Mabesekwa but he intended to expand his business to surrounding settlements in order to increase profit margins.

He advised other youths in the settlement to beat unemployment by starting income generating ventures to create their own employment as the only source of employment in the settlement,  Ipelegeng programme could not absorb all of them.

He said hard times called for out of the box thinking to explore sustainable initiatives.

Mr Diane said bricks as the core material in construction could be produced  using clay which is processed either through sun-drying or burning where possible.

He said anyone could do produce such bricks as clay soil bricks had been used since time immemorial and were still widely used particularly by rural communities around Botswana.

To ensure the durability of sun-dried clay bricks, fibrous materials is added as it is believed to enhance characteristics of mud bricks. ENDS