 | Training Human Settlement Workers in Eastern & Southern Africa (AFSC - Mazingira Institute, 1981) |
 |  | Training case studies |
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Plot-holder education in Botswana
Participants in the SHHA site and service schemes in Botswana have to meet certain criteria on income, age and residency. After being allocated plots and given materials loans, they are then required to build a small house within one year and to pay a service levy which includes water, refuse collection, road maintenance and the SHHA administrative costs. Plot-holder education begins with orientation at the time of plot application and continues during self-help construction.
Since many applicants are illiterate, a number of training tools have been developed to communicate visually and orally - these include comic books, role playing, a complaints procedure, SHHA community fairs and displays at local agricultural shows. The purpose of all these is to make clear the rights and obligations of plotholders and to ease communication and conflict resolution. Role playing has been used, with a mobile theatre truck, to illustrate subjects such as loans, the Land Act and the service levy.
The service levy was a particular source of conflict because it was raised at one point from one pula to five pula, and because part of it went to pay for salaries of the SHHA officers whose duty it was to collect it. Therefore, people automatically suspected them of corruption, and the field workers bore the brunt of a lot of public hostility. Here is an excerpt from a Role Play which was used to explain the service levy:
Role Play
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Tau |
No, No, my friend, ! do not support the idea of demonstrating against a government policy. First, you should request to know how the P5.00 amount has been reached. I think this can be explained at our SHHA Ward office in our area. |
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Tlou |
I do not want to go to the SHHA office for any explanation what-so-ever. Those girls in the office are too young to sit around a table with me and discuss an issue of this nature. I would like to talk to someone mature enough to take up my complaint since it affects the whole SHHA community. |
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Tau |
I have thought of something. Someone told me that a few months back the Town Clerk's Office arranged a seminar with the Ward Development Association to explain why the service levy has been raised to P5.00. Let's visit the Chairman of the W.D.A., I hope he will explain better. |
Both plot-holders leave for the Chairman's home.
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T/ou & Tau |
Ko....ko.... |
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Chairman |
Come in |
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Tlou & Tau |
Morning Rra................ |
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Chairman |
Morning Bo-Rra. How are you. |
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Tlou |
We are fine. The problem is, when it is month-end and when we have to search our pockets to settle our accounts, it is then that we think of the people who represent us in the Ward to try and look into our problems |
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Chairman |
What is your problem? I am surprised because both of you have not visited me before. |
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Tlou & Tau |
Yes, it is true. Next time we shall not hesitate coming because we have seen your place. |
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Chairman |
O.K. Iet's hear your problem. |
Another thing that helped defuse the public hostility to SHHA workers was a SHHA-sponsored fair where workers, residents and their leaders met in a convivial atmosphere with refreshments and films and other shows. However, Workshop participants also felt that it was wrong to place Community Development Workers in this awkward position to deal with a badly timed cost increase. It was compared with another example where party workers were charged with levy collection in Zambia and some failed to pass it to the authorities while others were merely suspected of corruption. A clear distinction needs to be made between officials responsible for assistance and the functions of revenue collection; records must also be clearly kept so that there are no abuses.
In Botswana, financial records were poorly kept at an early stage and some plot-holders were. incorrectly charged. Procedures have now been improved and clarified, and the use of an accounting machine in each Ward has substantially improved accuracy and accountability. Revenue clerks are trained on the job in the use of this machine, which does not require highly specialized skills or programming language.
From "Family Model's Housing Problems
and How They Were Solved" by SHHA
Botswana.
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