Tsholofelo: Selebi Phikwe comes alive!

• Tsholofelo Carnival brings hope for revival to the town of despair
• PNRB bought Selebi and Selebi Nort shafts for P770.21 million; Selkirk mine for P66.97 million
•  Canadian miner inch towards Selebi, Selkirk mines restart

DITIRO MOTLHABANE

ditiro@thepatriot.co.bw

The architects of a carnival scheduled to bring festivities, pomp and fanfare to the gloomy town of Selebi Phikwe on Independence Day (30^th September 2023), must have had the disaster that befell the nation on 7^th October 2016.

On that fateful day, President Mokgweetsi Masisi, then a Vice President to Lt Gen Ian Khama Seretse Khama, led a team of senior government officials where he announced to a packed Sam Sono stadium -in a no-nonsense tone that the BCL mine was no more. Over 6 000 workers of the government owned copper-nickel mine were instantly rendered jobless and relegated to poverty.

Many, unable to withstand the vicissitudes of transitioning from a well-paying job at BCL mine to beggars on the streets, have perished, families have broken asunder, while many others had to be attended by shrinks to preserve their sanity.

Overnight Selebi Phikwe had become a hell hole of sadness, as poverty stared people in the eyes, children were plucked out of English medium schools and re-enrolled with their Tswana school peers, while their parents were forced to vacate up market modern BCL residences to seek refuge with relatives in less fancied low income Botshabelo or elsewhere in their home villages. Ish* had hit the fan!