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Basarwa relocation has nothing to do with prospecting
20 October, 2003
Basarwa are not being relocated from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) to pave way for mineral prospecting because the technology deployed in such an exercise in Botswana does not require the removal of people from areas being prospected.
Assistant research and information division director in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Clifford Maribe said there was no need to move people because the Falcon technology involves aerial surveys using gradiometer with no impact at ground level.
Maribe told the Southern African Broadcasting Association (SABA) general assembly that ended in Gaborone last week that the intention to relocate Basarwa from the CKGR, was therefore purely meant to alleviate poverty within such communities and to avoid land use conflict in the reserve.
He dismissed as false allegations by Survival International that Basarwa were being moved to pave way for diamond mining because government had made no secret that there was general exploration for minerals throughout the country including the CKGR.
He said although nothing other than the Gope deposit had been found in the CKGR if a commercially viable deposit was discovered the merits and demerits of mining the deposit would be assessed as government has neither said nor is it saying mining was banned in the CKGR.
Maribe said in the past three decades, between 10 and 70 per cent of Botswana had been approved for mineral prospecting, including Gaborone and those areas to which the former residents of the CKGR had been relocated to and nobody was ever moved to make way for mineral prospecting.
In addition, he said of around 1 400 new prospecting licences issued since 1974 only a small percentage of them have resulted in the discovery of mineral deposits and only a small proportion was commercially viable.
As for issuing of retention licences, Maribe said it was possible for previously uneconomic deposits to overtime become economic and that was why mining companies would want to hold on to uneconomic deposits for as long as they would.
Maribe further said it must also be noted that mineral rights in Botswana were the property of the state so that they benefit the development of all citizens.
He said that was why existing mines in the country were not subject to claims of ownership of mineral rights from communities resident in the areas of exploration and mining development.
"Survival International is aware of all this information, yet, they persist in making untruthful and misleading allegations about Botswana," said Maribe.
He informed the delegates that relocation of people from protected areas was not new in Botswana, citing Mababe community as one example after they were relocated from the Moremi Game Reserve to an area next to the reserve.
The community was now effectively utilising and benefiting from the resources of the game reserve in a sustainable manner, he said.
Maribe also said Botswana was not a signatory to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples because it considers all Batswana indigenous to this country.
However, that does not place any ethnic group or member of such ethnic group at any particular disadvantage because Botswana has enshrined in its constitution the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals.
However, Maribe said Botswana supports the general principles and objectives of the said ILO conventions, in so far as they relate to the economically disadvantaged sections of its population.
The government of Botswana, he said was committed to building a nation of equals and every Motswana must have an unimpeded access to the benefits of independence and development.
"That is why, in as much as Basarwa have to preserve their culture, they must also be granted that opportunity to prepare for their own self-sustenance in the 21st Century and beyond," he
said.
From the Botswana Government's Propaganda website:
http://www.gov.bw/cgi-bin/news.cgi?d=20031020
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