Raymond Jaravaza-Bulawayo Bureau
EDWARD Khupe, a villager in Nswazwi, never imagined that he would one day relinquish one of his most cherished possessions — a foreign cellphone number — in favour of a local one. While many Zimbabweans in urban areas take having a local cellphone number for granted, villagers like Khupe have long relied on foreign networks for their communication needs.
For outsiders, it might seem perplexing why residents of Bulilima, like those in Nswazwi village, would choose foreign phone numbers when local networks offer affordable options, with easy step-by-step registration for Econet, NetOne, or Telecel numbers, often costing as little as US$1.
Nswazwi village, lying less than 8km from the Botswana border, is home to hundreds of BaKalanga-speaking villagers whose way of life revolves around subsistence farming and cattle rearing. Employment opportunities are scarce, compelling most adults to cross the border into Botswana for work or to purchase groceries and clothing for resale back home.
For years, Nswazwi villagers had no choice but to use Botswana cellphone numbers because local service providers lacked the infrastructure to cover this remote area. The prospect of change came when news spread through the village that construction workers were on site at Nswazwi business centre to build a shared base station or cell tower, commonly referred to as boosters in Zimbabwe.
Khupe, like his fellow villagers, harboured skepticism about this development. It was not without reason, as every politician seeking a political position, be it as a local councillor or Member of Parliament (MP), had promised to address the critical issue of booster unavailability in Nswazwi village when elected. As tradition would have it, these promises would often vanish into thin air once politicians assumed power, only to reappear with the same assurances when seeking re-election.
So, villagers watched with a mix of anticipation and doubt as a piece of land, roughly the size of half a football pitch, was cleared for the construction of what would become a booster, powered by a solar system and diesel.
To the majority of the villagers, witnessing construction workers assemble a tall steel structure on an immaculate concrete floor was a captivating experience. It represented hope on the horizon.
Finally, on June 19, 2023, the booster was officially commissioned, with Deputy Minister of Information Communication Technology (ICT) Cde Dingumuzi Phuti and Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Dr Evelyn Ndlovu in attendance, alongside other dignitaries. This momentous occasion marked the realisation of a long-held dream for the village, a dream finally brought to life.
“I bought my first cellphone in 2010 and for the last twelve or so years I have been using a Botswana number. There was simply no other option because we couldn’t use local numbers as there was no network in our village.
“What hurts us the most was that the airtime was too expensive but we didn’t have a choice but to buy it from vendors who bought it from Botswana,” Khupe told the Saturday Chronicle on Thursday afternoon.
For years business has been booming for vendors who walked into neighbouring Botswana through several porous border points to buy airtime in bulk for resale at premium rates.
Ten Pula (Botswana currency) airtime was sold at double the price to villagers in Nswazwi and surrounding areas experiencing the same predicament of non-availability of local network in their villages.
Old habits die hard as the old adage goes and Khupe wasn’t going to simply throw away his most prized possession just because a booster that offered local services such as Econet, NetOne and Telecel was now available in his village. Shared base stations mean that service providers share the same infrastructure instead of building separate cell towers, which can be costly to construct and operate.
For a man that had used a foreign number for over a decade, Khupe wanted to be certain that the local booster was efficient in both making phone calls and using social media platforms such as WhatsApp.
“The Minister (Phuti) assured us that the network would be good and that there was no need to continue using Botswana phone numbers anymore. Truth be told, I didn’t believe him, the other villagers also didn’t believe him.
“I bought my NetOne line (number) a week after the commissioning of the booster, just to test if the network was okay and I was pleasantly surprised. After twelve years I finally ditched my Botswana phone number. My children work in Botswana and today we communicate on WhatsApp using my NetOne number and an Econet number that my wife uses.
“I no longer have to buy expensive airtime from Botswana anymore, airtime is readily available in almost all the shops here at affordable prices,” added Khupe.
The Nswazwi business centre is a closely knit community where everyone knows everyone and mother of one Rejoice Dube, a shop attendant, is glued to her smartphone. She giggles, looks back at her phone and giggles again. It’s evident that the source of her joy is from the phone in her hand.
We ask her if she is active on social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook.
“I’m chatting to the father of my child who is in South Africa right now. He was telling me how he almost lost his phone to thugs in the streets in Johannesburg in the morning and how he fought back. Luckily he is okay, I was telling him how naughty his child is just to make him feel better,” says Dube.
The Second Republic under President Mnangagwa is on a robust drive to transform the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans.
Technology and easy access to communication infrastructure is a huge component of that drive hence taking development to far flung areas such as Nswazwi is important to the Government.
Headman Buyendasi Khupe, grey head gentlemen in his late 60s, vows that he will also not be left behind. He is on the phone chatting to his son in Botswana via WhatsApp. His son wanted to know if the family herd of cattle that had gone astray had been found.
“I found the cattle about 12 kilometers from our village, they were grazing next to the Botswana border where there is green grass and a small dam. I got a phone call from someone who said he had spotted my cattle in that area. Almost everyone is using a local number. We stopped using Botswana numbers when the new booster was built this year. The Government has not forgotten us after all and we are asking for development here in Nswazwi,” said headman Khupe.
Cde Phuti said the ICT Ministry will work tirelessly in making sure that the era of reliance on mobile connectivity from neighbouring countries is over as a result of increased construction of shared base station infrastructure, built using resources from the Universal Services Fund (USF).
Zimbabweans will connect to the Internet, enjoy voice and data services as well as conducting mobile money transactions across networks as part of the broader e-commerce drive and digital financial inclusion, said Cde Phuti.
The country’s major network service providers have already set up active network infrastructure and are operating harmoniously under the shared infrastructure model.
The investment has brought cheer to locals who have suffered years of isolation and had to rely on mobile connectivity from Botswana service players, such as was the case for Nswazwi villagers.