Red Cross donate as Ramaphatle celebrates village status and new chief

Botswana Red Cross volunteers are here in Ramaphatle to donate second hand clothes they collected from Gaborone West Phase 4 residents to the poor. The villagers, however have two more reasons to celebrate; Ramaphatle was recently declared a village and for the first time in the history of the settlement, they will have their own chief, one of their own. “This is the beginning,” says Kgosi Letlole Thobega of Mmankgodi. He is giving a welcome speech at the village’s kgotla. “The government now recognizes Ramaphatle as a village and that means we will have developments. Red Cross is part of development and we should have it here to show that indeed we have grown. Let’s clap and be happy.” Applause! Apart from the road side liquor restaurant that sells delicious chicken pieces, many people don’t know much about this settlement which has just been declared a village. It lies between Mmankgodi and Thamaga villages. Leaning on his walking stick to support his sizeable frame, Thobega continues; “Ramaphatle is a stream that feeds Metsimotlhabe river and it is the ploughing fields and cattle posts of Bahurutshe. “I’m now taking these fields and turning them into a village. The surveyors are coming soon to demarcate them into plots. Look at how lucky you are. Clap hands for yourselves.” The villagers clap their hands for longer as he struggles to sit down. Before that he has introduced the village’s incoming headman, Elija Mmualebe Dibe who is still doing his last stint as a soldier. “I’m a child so do not be surprised if I come to scratch your grey heads,” he says to the elderly folks of the village. “Rains are falling in Ramaphatle,” says Social Worker Lorato Nkemelang. “From village status, new kgosi and now Red Cross has felt pity for our disadvantaged fellows. You know a tree by its fruits and this is how we know they love us. Of all the places with poor people, they have chosen us.” Red Cross Gaborone youth branch Chairperson Gosego Makgale takes the floor. “These young people are volunteers who meet every Tuesday to find ways in which they can help the less fortunate. We collected these clothes from Phase 4 in Gaborone and we got more than we had expected.” Thirteen big bags full of second hand clothes, shoes, toys and new blankets are offloaded from the trailer nearby to be given to the poor. By this time the kgotla has filled up with residents mostly children and the elderly who have braved the cold air to be here.