04 Jul 2018

 Like a leviathan of a ship out at sea, Thotayamarula sits majestically on the south-western side of Loologane, a village that is only 14 years old.
At first glance, the area that sprawls 192 hectares of land looks like any other ordinary rise, but a close scrutiny reveals its richness in diversity of natural resources.
Giant morula trees, that are the mainstay that gave the place its name, stand majestically across the whole rise.
The area holds the dreams of the tiny village of Loologane. A peek into that crystal dream reveals many goodies; a large irrigation farm run solely by the youth producing a variety of vegetable, a prosperous dairy farm on the side-lines and tourists flocking the area to see its historical features.
 The morula trees, abundant in the area being exploited for by-products such as soaps, lip balm and jam, all done by youths who would have been otherwise idling in the village without employment.
The dream, if realised, would go a long way in emancipating Loologane economically. Having been established only in 2004, the village is still considered a remote area and its residents, mostly Basarwa grouped from surrounding areas, are still sustained by various government dispensations.
However, this beautiful dream of the village still remains just that; a dream that is failing to take off even after so many years, and one of the pioneers of the project, Ms Kgabonyana Keitshwaretswe said such a failure is a sad reality for her village.
Having seen the village from its establishment, she said her dream was also to see it into the new dawn. But what could be holding back Thotayamarula, under the Matsheng Community Development Trust, from taking off.
“The main problem is that the project is made up of just too many villages, so working together is a challenge. Thotayamarula was the brainchild of Loologane village alone and we want it to remain that way. We do not want other villages in our project,” she said.
She indicated that the other four villages had proposed their own projects such as vegetable gardens and nurseries while Loologane proposed the conservation area, but that after other villages failed in their projects, they then ‘high-jacked our project and joined in.’
She indicated that the other members in the trust being Sojwe, ShadiShadi, Lephepe, and Boatlaname are already economically advanced.
“Our village was established just over a decade ago by clustering residents from the surrounding cattle posts. Most of them are Basarwa who are still a bit backward from the rest of the society and Thotayamarula was mooted partly to assist them to catch up. We wanted to create employment opportunities for them and help develop the village,” she said.
Ms Keitshwaretswe said the project was just too small for the expectations of five villages.
She indicated that including other villages was like limiting the benefits that should accrue to Loologane. She said at the moment the offices of the trust are located at ShadiShadi and that residents of Loologane were never informed on any developments ever since the first and only committee so far was elected many years back.
“As the architects of the project, we feel side-lined. The project is just stagnant while the precious morula fruits go to waste every year,” she said.
Ms Keitshwaretswe’s main fear is that most Basarwa in the village who were collected from the surroundings cattle posts were now returning to their old habitats, with some even employed as herdsmen.
“The dreams of this village are collapsing with this trust. We didn’t know that other villages have joined us until long after,” she said.
Mr Simane Tshwaranang, the trust’s deputy chairperson also shared Ms Keitshwaretswe’s sentiments. “The issues of many villages in the trust brings along too much complacency mainly because people work on a voluntary basis. So it is difficult for them to come to meetings. As a RAD settlement, we believe that we could have enjoyed special assistance from the government if we had gone it alone in the project,” he said.
He said even though Loologane wished to be the sole owners of the project, they were yet to consult other member villages, something he said they were planning to do soon. Thotayamarula’s failure to take off saddens Mr Tshwaranang to the core.
“Failure of this project is like the death of the whole village. Its prosperity and reputation are symbiotic to its success. We haven’t yet lost hope on it though. We believe it will rise one good day,” he said, glancing as if meditating into the future.
He said the reality is even made painful by the fact that other trusts with similar aims such as Kgetsi ya Tsie in Lerala came way after Matsheng, but have already progressed so well that they were even planning to go and benchmark there.
Mr Tshwaranang however clarified that the reason the offices of the trust were located at Shadishadi was that there was no electricity in Loologane.
“UNDP assisted us with some machinery needed for the project and these machines run on electricity, hence the decision to locate the factory and office at Shadishadi,” he said.
He also said that five youths from each five-member villages were trained in running the project, but because of lack of funds to pay them, they were currently just idling.
According to Ms Keitshwaretswe, Thotayamarula also holds a special place in the hearts of Loologane residents, especially those that relocated to the village from the area.
“Like I mentioned, some residents were relocated from Thotayamarula to Loologane to be closer to developments, but the connection with that place is still strong,” she said.
She said their stay there pre-dates the Mfecane wars. ENDS