A Note on the Defunct Morwa Forestry Plantation and a Very Strange Pattern of Development in Mochudi

Abstract

Last week (in March 2008) I went to have a look at the old Brigade plantation at Morwa. I had not been there for years and it took two false starts even to hit the correct road. And even then I arrived at what seemed to be a wrong, certainly unfamiliar, angle. But then it was not just the angle of approach that was wrong. The entire place was a total disaster. Fortunately, I had been warned what to expect but it was, nevertheless, incredibly sad to see what had become of a once thriving project. For a start, the trees had nearly all gone which, in a plantation, would seem to be the last thing that could have happened because when chopped they simply burst into renewed life. But here they had been chopped and died leaving a few scattered trees as evidence of what once had been. The old staff houses were ruined shells; all of them having had their roofs, doors and window and door frames systematically looted. The bush had encroached and it was hard to imagine that this had ever been a vibrant project with life, and hope.