Gaborone Stimulus Paper

Gaborone shares the challenges resulting from rapid urban growth of the other African cities in PIE, with Gaborone one of the fastest growing cities in the world. A point of particular interest in the Gaborone paper is the action taken by the University of Botswana in giving effect to its community engagement objectives...

Gaborone

Gaborone is the administrative, commercial and industrial capital of the Republic of Botswana. The population of Gaborone is currently estimated at 200 000 which amounts to 30% of the country’s urban population and 10% of the national population. Spatially, Gaborone extends over an estimated area of about 23,804.6 hectares allocated to different land uses- commercial, industrial and residential.  This gives Gaborone an average population density of 1 122 people per km².

From inception, Gaborone was planned as the political capital town of Botswana, a position it has since retained and consolidated as it developed into a primate city par excellence. Gaborone dates back to 1963 when a decision was made to relocate the capital town from Mafikeng in South Africa to a more appropriate location within the soon to be independent Bechuanaland Protectorate. Consequently a site located between latitudes 20⁰ 31’ and 24⁰ 45’ south of the equator and between longitudes 25⁰ 50’ and 26⁰ 12’east of the Greenwich meridian was selected for the new capital. The locational advantages of this site included non-tribal affiliation and the availability of reliable source of water from the Notwane River an ephemeral stream which was later dammed to create the Gaborone Dam. As it stands to date, Gaborone is sandwiched between two tribal areas-Bakwena tribal area to the west and Batlokwa tribal area to the east while bordered to the north and south by freehold farms. Land in tribal areas is held under communal tenure system while land in the surrounding farms is freehold. The different land tenure systems greatly affected the expansion of Gaborone creating a complex system of sub-urbanisation and development of upmarket residential estates in the freehold farms and peri-urbanisation with the prevalence of informal sector developments in the two tribal areas abutting Gaborone.

The growth of Gaborone has always been phenomenal and far outstripped official projections. The first plan for Gaborone was prepared in 1963 and it envisaged that by 1983 the population of Gaborone will be about 20 000. This was a gross underestimation as by 1971 the population of Gaborone had reached 17 718 and 59 657 by 1981. Underestimation of the population of Gaborone was repeated in the 1971 Gaborone Planning Proposals. The proposals had estimated that by 1980 the population of Gaborone would be around 40 000 and 72 000 by 1990. The above were all gross underestimation as revealed by the population census results which showed that by 1981 there were 59 657 people living in Gaborone and the above figure had increased to 133 468 in 1991. Currently the population of Gaborone is estimated at 200 000.

Gaborone, is currently one of the fastest growing cities in the world (Wikipedia, 2012). Like other cities in developing countries the growth of Gaborone is accompanied by major challenges that include traffic congestion, inadequate infrastructure, inadequate housing, shortage of land, and urban decay. Successive state intervention programmes geared at addressing the above challenges recorded varying degrees of success. One major limitation of these attempts was the disjointed manner in which urbanisation challenges were addressed.  A more holistic and comprehensive planning for Gaborone came in 1997 with the preparation of the Gaborone City Development Plan 1997-2021 (Republic of Botswana, 1998). A review of this plan commissioned in 2007 ushered in more creative and innovative planning proposals to the growth and management of the city of Gaborone The review introduced a vision statement which calls for a well-planned city, a caring city, economically vibrant city, a well- managed city- environmentally friendly with well-preserved cultural heritage (Republic of Botswana, 2008). This vision became a focus for some of the University of Botswana’s community engagement efforts.

University of Botswana’s community engagement efforts featured in policy discussions in 2003 as part of the university’s strategic planning process. The first University of Botswana Strategic Plan entitled ‘Shaping our Future: University of Botswana’s Strategic Priorities and Actions to 2009 and Beyond’ was released in 2004 (UB, 2004). The next one entitled ‘A Strategy for Excellence: University of Botswana’s Strategic Plan to 2016 and Beyond’ was prepared in 2008 (UB, 2008). One of the objectives was to ‘establish a programme of development and capacity building to establish Gaborone as a ‘learning city’ (UB, 2008, p.14).

For implementation purposes, the strategic plans were cascaded to faculties. As a result the Faculty of Engineering and Technology (FET)[1] adopted ‘strengthening engagement’ as one of its priority areas. It was envisaged that engagement would greatly enhance the FET’s global competitiveness and this was to be realized through the formation of collaborative relations with strategic partners both locally and globally. With regard to collaboration with local industry, the FET Strategic Plan contends that collaboration will assist in ‘turning research and development into entrepreneurial ventures.’ (FET, 2008, p. 5) The Strategic Plan also viewed outreach programmes as a crucial part of the engagement drive. According to the FET Strategic Plan ‘community outreach programmes extend our reach to broader segments of society and help create awareness and interest in engineering and the built environment at the UB’ (FET, 2008, p. 5).

One of the many routes through which the university of Botswana ‘s community engagement  objectives were operationalized was through a two-year University of Botswana- Gaborone City Council PURE project conducted under the auspices of the UB’s Department of Adult Education (DAE). Researchers for the study were drawn from the UB and the Gaborone City council (Ntseane, 2010). In line with the vision statement of the Revised Gaborone Development Plan the following focus areas were identified for engagement / collaboration- culture, environmental sustainability, SMME development, urban planning/physical planning and lifelong learning (University of Botswana PURE Research Committee Minutes, 2010). It was therefore agreed that researchers should carry out a needs assessment to define specific areas that would form the basis for collaboration.

For the urban planning sector, the needs assessment study identified limited awareness of the urban planning process among key stakeholders in Gaborone as one of the planning challenges faced by the Gaborone City Council. Respondents contended that there was minimal communication and information sharing between the City Council officials on the one hand and the general public on the other. Communities in Gaborone remain uninformed about what is happening in the city in terms of physical /urban planning issues. Buildings are coming up almost on a daily basis, major roads are reconstructed and trees that are as old as the City are brought down, traffic circles turned into complex traffic lights regulated intersections. It is submitted that the ordinary citizens of Gaborone are ignorant of such development as there are no formal and effective channels of communicating and argumentation about such projects. Crudely put the assumption seems to be ‘if it does not affect you then there is no need to know.’ Such sentiments run contrary to current calls for participatory urban planning methodologies and the advocacy for an informed citizenry. Effective communication and information sharing between the City Council and the general public seem to be one area that could become the focus of the envisaged collaboration between the University of Botswana and the Gaborone City Council.

One major recommendation suggested to address the issues identified above is the establishment of an urban planning clinic at the University of Botswana. The Clinic will act mainly as a planning advocacy and information centre. The clinic will assist individuals, groups and public sector bodies in planning related matters. Information dissemination shall be realized through the preparation and distribution of planning brochures and leaflets on topical planning issues.

Discussion Issues

1. How do we interpret or understand the marginalization of communities in the urban planning processes in fast urbanizing cities like Gaborone? Is the marginalization deliberate or unintended and what are its implications to the democratization of the urban planning process?
2. In the process of promoting University-community engagement, there seems to be two possible motivations all emanating from global neoliberalism which defines the context in which urbanization in developing countries is taking place; first  engagement could mean the promotion of the interest of industry and in the process attract footloose global capital (a reading of the FET Strategic Plan suggests this motivation), and secondly, university engagement could be geared towards addressing the injustices spawned by centralized and non-inclusive policy formulation structures. Engagement would thus become a continuous project aimed at the creation of inclusive and participatory and just society. In the field of education this is akin to Paulo Freire ’s transformative  pedagogy (Freire, 1970) while in urban planning John Friedman’s planning as social mobilization  (Friedmann 1987) is geared at the creation of a just communities. The challenge is, in coming up with an urban planning clinic how do we balance these two?
3. We would be grateful to hear how other people have gone about starting an advocacy / advisory services to communities within which the Universities are situated.

References

(FET) Faculty of Engineering and Technology (2008) A Strategy for Excellence 2009-2011 University of Botswana –Unpublished Faculty Document

Friedmann, J (1987) Planning in the Public Domain: from Knowledge to Action Princeton: Princeton University Press

Freire, P (1970) The Adult Literacy Process a cultural  action for Freedom Harvard Educational Review  40 (2)  205-225

Ntseane, P (2010) PASCAL Report to Gaborone Region: PURE Work 2009-2010 (Unpublished Report)

Republic of Botswana (1998) Gaborone City Development Plan (1997-2021) Gaborone

Republic of Botswana (2008) Review of Gaborone City Development Plan (1997-2021) Draft Development Plan, Gaborone

Schuetze, H. G ‘The Third Mission of Universities: Community Engagement and Service In P. Inman and H.G Schuetze (eds.) The Community Engagement and Service Mission of Universities Leicester: NIACE pp 13-31

(UB) University of Botswana (2004) Shaping our Future UB’s Strategic Priorities and Action to 2009 and Beyond University of Botswana, Gaborone –Unpublished

(UB) University of Botswana (2008) A Strategy for Excellence: University of Botswana’s Strategic Plan to 2016 and Beyond’

(UB) University of Botswana PURE Research Committee Minutes of Meeting held on 10^th November 2010