The B1 road – a lifeline and a curse

THE recent murder of 36-year-old Sanna //Garoes, whose body parts were found strewn along the B1 road, has underlined the plight of many Namibians born outside the country’s main economic hub.

She is one of many residents from the South who headed for Windhoek in search of a better life, or at least an economically secure life. //Garoes ended up being murdered by a killer now labelled the ‘B1 Butcher’.As local women last Thursday joined hands with //Garoes’s family at their home in Kalkrand to mourn her death and pray for the arrest of her killer, one opinion on what led to her death was shared by many of the town’s residents.Kalkrand, home to fewer than 3 000 people, does not have the means to ensure their survival.EVEN JOBS STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE With one service station, three shops, a bottle store and a bar, as well as perhaps an opportunity at the local clinic or village council, there simply aren’t enough jobs to go around.The village has only one primary school and no secondary school, and those eligible for the few jobs available become a very small pool.”After a child passes grade seven, you need to send them to Duineveld (High School – situated between Rehoboth and Kalkrand), or maybe Rehoboth or Mariental to finish high school.So on top of school funds you also have to budget for hostel fees,” said Thomas Rooy.Rooy is part of a youth group that uses the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare’s building at the town to try and organise activities for young people there.”If you look at the family set-up here, you’ll see that it’s mostly grandparents taking care of their grandchildren.So you have pensioners earning N$370 a month who are supposed to pay for these children to go to school, to go to hostel, and to get them there,” he says.PASSING RELIEF One thing the town has going for it, he says, is the heavy traffic on the B1 main road, and the many truck drivers who stop at the service station situated next to it.”Even those who go to high school sometimes fail grade 10 and end up back here.So they look at their options.They don’t want to leave their sometimes sick grandparents behind, so they go and sit and wait for the trucks,” says Raenoldt Seroun, another member of Rooy’s group.”It’s a difficult situation with these trucks,” he says.”On the one hand we’re happy for them because they at least bring some money into the town when they stop here.But on the other hand, because we don’t have work, they exploit our women,” he says.They are worried about plans to set up a formal truck port, the young men say, but would not be willing to raise their voice against the owner.”It (prostitution) will obviously become worse if this becomes a reality, but we can’t complain because it’s job creation for us also,” says one of them.TALKING IN WHISPERS A cashier at one of the shops situated next to the main road, who did not want to be named, said it’s not unusual for a girl to hitch a ride with a truck driver to either Rehoboth or Mariental, only to come back to Kalkrand in the same way, either on the same day or a day later.”See, that’s one of them,” the older woman whispers as a young girl interrupts the conversation to buy a cigarette before leaving the shop and walking in the direction of the bar next door.”It’s still early, you should see them at night,” she says.She does not share Rooy or Seroun’s empathy for the girls.”I’ve thought maybe we, the mothers, must go out here one night in black masks and condemn [scold] them for what they are doing.When you talk about these things you are told you are old-fashioned.”When I was young we used to work in the fields.Today, they are too lazy to work so they live like this,” she charges.The Ministry of Gender Equality’s representative at Kalkrand, Maggy Katimba, said that a workshop had been scheduled for this week to try and get young people in the community to come up with ways to tackle the problems in their society, including prostitution, HIV-AIDS and unemployment.More innovative strategies are hampered by a lack of money, Rooy and Seroun say.”We try to get the young people together through sports like football and volleyball.But the equipment is donated and limited, especially if you look at the interest in the community.People really are interested but you can only do so much with what you have,” says another of Rooy’s team, Adriaan Beukes.//Garoes ended up being murdered by a killer now labelled the ‘B1 Butcher’.As local women last Thursday joined hands with //Garoes’s family at their home in Kalkrand to mourn her death and pray for the arrest of her killer, one opinion on what led to her death was shared by many of the town’s residents.Kalkrand, home to fewer than 3 000 people, does not have the means to ensure their survival.EVEN JOBS STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE With one service station, three shops, a bottle store and a bar, as well as perhaps an opportunity at the local clinic or village council, there simply aren’t enough jobs to go around.The village has only one primary school and no secondary school, and those eligible for the few jobs available become a very small pool.”After a child passes grade seven, you need to send them to Duineveld (High School – situated between Rehoboth and Kalkrand), or maybe Rehoboth or Mariental to finish high school.So on top of school funds you also have to budget for hostel fees,” said Thomas Rooy.Rooy is part of a youth group that uses the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare’s building at the town to try and organise activities for young people there.”If you look at the family set-up here, you’ll see that it’s mostly grandparents taking care of their grandchildren.So you have pensioners earning N$370 a month who are supposed to pay for these children to go to school, to go to hostel, and to get them there,” he says.PASSING RELIEF One thing the town has going for it, he says, is the heavy traffic on the B1 main road, and the many truck drivers who stop at the service station situated next to it.”Even those who go to high school sometimes fail grade 10 and end up back here.So they look at their options.They don’t want to leave their sometimes sick grandparents behind, so they go and sit and wait for the trucks,” says Raenoldt Seroun, another member of Rooy’s group. “It’s a difficult situation with these trucks,” he says.”On the one hand we’re happy for them because they at least bring some money into the town when they stop here.But on the other hand, because we don’t have work, they exploit our women,” he says.They are worried about plans to set up a formal truck port, the young men say, but would not be willing to raise their voice against the owner.”It (prostitution) will obviously become worse if this becomes a reality, but we can’t complain because it’s job creation for us also,” says one of them. TALKING IN WHISPERS A cashier at one of the shops situated next to the main road, who did not want to be named, said it’s not unusual for a girl to hitch a ride with a truck driver to either Rehoboth or Mariental, only to come back to Kalkrand in the same way, either on the same day or a day later.”See, that’s one of them,” the older woman whispers as a young girl interrupts the conversation to buy a cigarette before leaving the shop and walking in the direction of the bar next door.”It’s still early, you should see them at night,” she says.She does not share Rooy or Seroun’s empathy for the girls.”I’ve thought maybe we, the mothers, must go out here one night in black masks and condemn [scold] them for what they are doing.When you talk about these things you are told you are old-fashioned.”When I was young we used to work in the fields.Today, they are too lazy to work so they live like this,” she charges.The Ministry of Gender Equality’s representative at Kalkrand, Maggy Katimba, said that a workshop had been scheduled for this week to try and get young people in the community to come up with ways to tackle the problems in their society, including prostitution, HIV-AIDS and unemployment.More innovative strategies are hampered by a lack of money, Rooy and Seroun say.”We try to get the young people together through sports like football and volleyball.But the equipment is donated and limited, especially if you look at the interest in the community.People really are interested but you can only do so much with what you have,” says another of Rooy’s team, Adriaan Beukes.