adminTHE San Community of Sifulasengwe in Tsholotsho district are appealing for assistance to enable them to start agricultural activities that will enable them to sell produce and send their children to school. San Community Co-ordinator Mr Christopher Dube said in an interview that communities in Mazibulala and Dlamini villages in Tsholotsho were keen to venture in to agriculture for development.
“We are a poor people who need help, we do not do much agriculture as we have primitive tools that do not allow us to grow crops on a large scale. We still use hoes and it is very slow such that we cannot cultivate large pieces of land,” said Mr Dube.
The San community said they needed assistance to start farming and selling produce so that they send their children to school and to also access medical facilities.
Mr Dube said the San people operated in a cashless society as they did not work or engage in any activity that could see money circulating hence they could not send their children to school or even trade.
“We do not have any goats, cows, sheep or chickens as we do not have any money to buy them, just a very small fraction of people are employed across the border in Botswana but generally we are not economically active people so we need a start,” said Mr Dube.
The co-ordinator said some of the community members in Sifulasengwe were set to appear before the local chief for defaulting in paying school fees.
“Some parents whose children attended a local primary school are set to appear before the traditional chief’s court because they have debts at school that they have not paid for a long time as they do not have the money. We do not know what will happen to them and we are worried,” said Mr Dube.
Project Co-ordinator for Medicines Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Tsholotsho Mr Meluleki Nyathi said the community needed a decent shelter at their meeting point.
“The San in this area live very far apart and to mobilise them for certain events is very hard so they have a makeshift shelter that they built where they meet when there is a need for that. But the shelter needs to be properly built so that they are protected from weather elements,” said Mr Nyathi.
He said the meeting point was used for immunisations and other health or social activities that come up in their area.
Mr Nyathi said he was impressed with the increased acceptance of using modern health facilities and medicines by the San in Tsholotsho.
“We are impressed by the increased uptake of modern means of getting assistance by the San, they actually call us when they have their own cultural gatherings and we have talks about HIV and Aids when they are all here and it is good,” said Mr Nyathi.
He said the San were very conservative people that needed a special kind of approach when one brought in a new modern concept. He said they still believed in treating themselves with traditional medicines but they were not effective when it comes to HIV and Aids.
An estimated population of about 1 700 San is found in Tsholotsho in Matabeleland North alone and other sizeable numbers are found in the Plumtree area of Matabeleland South. The San population is estimated at more than 2 500 across the country.
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