Exploring rural-urban migration

The senior citizen was prompted to ask the question because children in Shakawe were leaving in large numbers to go for weekends in Maun to shop and to party.

The young people would reportedly tell the elderly people a majority of whom are illiterate: 'Ke ya weekendeng ko Maun (I am going to Maun for a weekend)'. The elders apparently interpreted this to mean that weekend was a special place for the young people in Maun. But unbeknown to the elders this has all to do with rural-urban migration in Africa. Professors Frank Ellis, Overseas Development group University of East Anglia, UK and Nigel Harris, Development Policy Unit, University College London suggests that rural-urban migration is a natural process and should not provide cause for concern.

In their paper entitled 'New thinking about urban and rural development' presented at the DFID Advisors Conference in 2004, they say that in policy terms, it is disastrous to prevent the poor from escaping from poor areas, resettlements and slums.

They say it is vitally important for rural households to move freely. Many may spend some time in urban areas or migrate to other rural areas for seasonal work but a large proportion then return to their villages. Those who settle in metropolitan areas, do so because they find opportunities that are not available elsewhere.

In Botswana there was a time when the dream of a better life lured able-bodied people to be recruited by the Native Recruiting Company (NRC) or The employment Bureau of Africa (TEBA) to work in the South African mines in large numbers.

The migrants earned an income and created some wealth, contributed to rural economies by sending vital remittances to family members. But some ultimately chose to settle permanently in South Africa because of the opportunities it offered then.

Boikhutso Mack, 25 joined his parents in 1991 when they relocated from Gulubane village in the North-East to settle in Francistown. His father (now deceased) was a bricklayer and was pushed out of the rural Gulubane to the city with hope of making it in the construction industry.

'With the jobs that my late father got, he was able to raise me and my siblings. We started off renting houses in the city and now we have our own house in the low-income location of Monarch,' declares Mack who now runs a barbershop near Meriting Spar. The reason why the Mack family relocated from Gulubane was that the father who had obtained the bricklaying skill wanted to raise children where there are opportunities. After the death of his father and his failure to get a good pass on completing his Junior Certificate (JC), Mack decided to emulate his parents and settled in the city.

'Look, I grew up here and I don't think going back to Gulubane could help my ambition of making it in the informal sector. I visit Gulubane once in a while to greet my grandparents who still reside there,' he explains. His motto is: 'You live where there is life'. The same applies to Mack's peers who originate from places like Mathangwane, Tutume, Tshesebe but ply their trade in the city.

Patricia Magola, 31 hails from Borolong village a few kilometres west of Francistown. She has not migrated from her rural village to the city per se but she drives to her workplace at the law firm of Kgalemang and Associates on daily basis.

Many people commute daily to Francistown from Mathangwane, Sebina, Marobela, Tshesebe, Tsamaya, Matsiloje, Tonota, Matshelagabedi, Tatisiding and other surrounding areas. Francistown's booming mining sector has attracted more jobseekers than any other time.

The BBC Focus on Africa magazine quotes Alain Durand-Lasserve-an academic at the National Centre of Scientific Research in Paris saying that: 'Urbanisation on the continent can be put down to poverty and the effects of climate change. In Africa where 42 percent of the local population is in urban areas, cities are growing because they are the only places where people will have a chance of escaping poverty-if they are lucky and resilient'.

The same July-September, 2007 edition of the BBC Focus on Africa magazine quotes Professor Jacob Sonsore from the University of Ghana saying that: 'The rural to urban movement is a conscious fleeing from 'entrenched poverty' in the rural areas'. University of Botswana (UB) economics lecturer, Gaotlhobogwe Motlaleng wonders what could keep people in the rural areas when there are commercial activities taking place there.

'There are no income generating activities in the majority of Botswana's rural areas hence the movement to the more developed towns and cities remain the only hope,' he says. The UB academic says demand is driven by the purchasing power and adds that since there was nothing to support the provision of services in the rural areas no-one risks setting up businesses there. Motlaleng says that under the prevailing circumstances, it is difficult to convince a potential investor to set up in the rural areas when there is no purchasing power.

Migration to the more affluent towns and cities has the pull and push factors.  All migrants expect a bright future in towns and cities and in most cases, there are sustaining projects in urban areas where people could get employment.

As it is, rural areas are just the production centres and supply the raw materials to the urban centres. 'For instance, look at the beef industry where farmers in the rural areas rear cattle and then sell them in the form of raw materials to the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) abattoirs without adding any value to them,' The economist feels that unless there are sustainable factories in the rural areas then the status quo would prevail. 'Look, there is no sustainable income in the rural areas and as such development will not take root in there. Even most businesses fail to break even in the rural areas because of low demand,' says Motlaleng. He adds that businesses that have set up in the rural areas do not survive because there is no commercial activity taking place there.

He says that things like rural electrification, provision of potable water, roads and health facilities which the government often claims to be development must be provided and should always be there in the rural areas for the public good. This he says should be the priority of any government in power as such services have no commercial price.

Independent economist Dr Keith Jefferis says the rural economy has failed in Botswana. He says there is no way rural-urban migrants can be discouraged under the prevailing circumstances. He sees the migrants as making a rational decision to leave the rural areas.

Jefferis is not in favour of a policy that would reflect or attempt to prevent people migrating to where they can get opportunities. He feels that given the migration trends, it is possible that only 10-30 percent of people would remain in the rural areas in the long term.

'There are hardly any economic activities in the rural areas and economies out there have not experienced any growth. If you look at the population in the rural areas, it is mostly children and old people as the working group has migrated to urban areas.' He wonders what would happen in the long term as the old people die.

He feels that the working class would prefer to stick to the urban centres and would not return to he rural areas. Through government's National Master Plan for Arable Agriculture and Dairy Development (NAMPAAD) Jefferis strongly believes there is hope to improve the rural economies. 'NAMPAAD can modernise and commercialise agriculture,' he declares. He adds that the rural economies can get a boost from the exploitation of the indigenous products in such areas as tourism and others. 'But still, this will not curb rural-urban movement,' he warns. He stresses that since urban dwellers generally lead a better life with more opportunities and low levels of poverty, they would not simply revert to the 'dark life'.

During the last budget speech, Finance and Development Planning Minister, Baledzi Gaolathe said the government has a plan for rural development and poverty alleviation. He said government has established a multi-sectoral committee on poverty reduction, as a sub-committee of the Rural Development Council (RDC) with the responsibility to co-ordinate the implementation of the national poverty reduction strategy and to carry out the relevant monitoring and evaluation of the poverty alleviation programmes.

The multi-sectoral committee, among others, monitors the social safety nets and other social security interventions; links district and community level initiatives aimed at poverty reduction with national level initiatives and analyses options that can provide employment opportunities to address the needs of the poor and enable them to engage in sustainable livelihoods. 'The ultimate goal is that all citizens will share in the fruits of our economic growth. To this end, government provides a number of social safety nets, which include the destitute allowance, the orphan care programme and the old age pension scheme,' Gaolathe said in the budget speech.