Seems like there’s a need among “prophets” and “pastors” to “own” business jets in order to better serve their victims congregations. To save me turning to Google for the debunking I’ve decided to keep notes here .
Please don’t be taken in by self-appointed preachers promising wealth, health and happiness: you get that by your own ingenuity.
From one of the articles linked below:
Malawi24 asked a psychologist to interpret what the aim of Bushiri was in making the lies.
“Bushiri is a conman, he pulls all these stunts to impress desperate people. The aim is that when people see that they will be convinced he has the message from God and will give him their money. In the end, his business is just on track,” said the psychologist who opted for anonymity.
I am now at an all-time low with Orange Botswana postpaid.
There has been no response regarding the Orange Money issue. (readers’ note: a Virtual Visa transaction of ~P350 to the Steam online gaming service failed last year and has never been credited back to my account – Orange say I must take it up with Steam, the error message from Steam was “transaction failed: card not authorised”)
Our Flybox (79xxxxxx) that is on an “old” Platinum package and so limited to 5GB for P399 per month has reached the data limit after only 10 days of use (16 March to 26 March). The previous billing period it lasted the whole month (16 Feb to 15 March). Your customer service rep Kaone says it is not possible to send me a summary of when the data was used, but that I must wait for the invoice on the 16th of April. Kaone also told me that we should still be receiving a speed limited service, but we have nothing – although the speed in the village is ridiculously slow anyway.
Further on the Flybox, last year Orange “upgraded” the Platinum package to 20GB and a “soft” cap so that once the bundle is finished the connection stays live but is speed limited. I have been told that to get the 20GB “upgrade” we must cancel our existing contract (loyal customers with 3 lines for ~5 years) and pay the penalty fees. So only another year until we get the same service as a new customer.
Regarding the sending of invoices, I had to AGAIN manually request an invoice in March in order to make the right payment.
Since 30 March, my wife’s Blackberry (72xxxxxx), on a Blackberry-linked contract, has had no on-device data (my understanding is that on-device data is unlimited). She is being told her bundle is finished and must send a message to a cellphone number in order to receive a top-up – for which we will no doubt pay the exorbitant rates that service providers in Botswana like to charge for their mediocre services.
Kaone also told me that there was “a glitch” on the recent rollover where some customers were only credited with half their data bundles, but this was not the issue with our Flybox.
I look forward to a meaningful response.
Highlights from other dissatisfied Orange Botswana customers:
#1
I give up on orange.
1-they changed my contract line to prepaid-still waiting for them to reverse the error that was 7 months ago and they still expect to pay for a postpaid service I have 7 months not using (they must refund my airtime)
2-same issue as yours on flybox. This month it seems they cut tgr service a week after the 16th (billing date) but mind you the internet is NEVER used during the day as nobody is home.
3-my mother has been an orange customer for 15 years and this month her ‘data’ finished. She enquired at orange only to get a yeah its finished. She hardly uses mobile data 1-her workplace has wifi, 2-she uses data for whats app and reading news online (thats when the flybox doesn’t work). Orange told her that her data limit is 200mb per month which is false cause that isn’t in the agreed contact.
#2.1
Got the same response two years ago. They bill you by the data cost and then do some kind of conversion to P399. No interest from managers and the accounts department is manned by new graduates with no idea of ‘who pays them’
#2.2
I’ve not been able to engage ‘roaming’ on my phone for 6 months, despite repeated contacts with orange. One clever girl even told me that I have to be in South Africa to request roaming. She’s obviously never been out of signal range.
#2.3
Please help me here. It was on the 4th of March 2016 when I tried to withdraw money from my orange money account using my orange money visa card. The transaction failed due to an orange network problem. The following morning I checked my orange money account to check if the network problem was resolved. Only for me discover that there was no money in my account. I checked my statement which revealed that I made a withdrawal the previous day thou I cudnt get money due to network issues. I then called the Orange helpline to ask for assistant,I hav been to the nearest orange office to complete a dispute form and told my money will b deposited into my account. Its bin a month now and iv not been compesated and when I call the only answer they give me its that they are still investigating. How convenient is orange money really!! How do I get my money back
Woke up this morning to a good old Twitter storm, seems like a couple of young South African rappers Nasty C and Emtee were booked to perform at a Skyy Infusion gig at Stanbic Bank Piazza in Gaborone, Botswana. Neither of them showed up, and Nasty C claimed that something went wrong with his flight arrangements.
Went out on a little bicycle ride this morning that took me past Mmopane down to the Metsimotlhaba River, through Metsimotlhaba village and almost (but not quite) to Gabane before heading back past Mogoditshane.
For me cycling gives me time to reflect on life, the universe and everything. Once I got down to the river my mind was turned from personal reflection to consideration of the universe, or a tiny part of it: the Metsimotlhaba River.
I actually remember watching a news story on Btv maybe 10 years ago in which the residents of Metsimotlhaba and Mmopane were complaining to their councillors about the heavy trucks driving through their villages at speed carrying sand from the river to construction projects in Gaborone. A quick internet search gives a host of media reports on the subject.
It actually started as I crossed the river near Letlhajweng: a large yellow 4-axle tipper truck was stuck in the riverbed with a bunch of guys trying to dig it out – no pictures as they were quite likely operating illegally. A flash-flood would have been nice…
From Google Earth satellite imagery it can be seen that the watercourse from Metsimotlhabe village to Bokaa Dam is quite flat, with typical floodplain geography: silt and clay, good vegetation, signs of changing river course, etc..
Interestingly the river channel becomes less pronounced as you get closer to Bokaa Dam, and I’m guessing that this is because when full the dammed water reaches back as far as Kopong, so there has been deposition across the whole floodplain.
Watershed feeding the Metsimotlhaba River and Bokaa Dam
Metsimotlhaba River floodplain north east of Metsimotlhaba village
Metsimotlhaba River to Bokaa Dam
As you move upstream from Kopong towards Letlhajweng the river channel starts to become more developed, until near Metsimotlhaba village the channel must be in excess of 4m deep and 50m wide – if not more. And completely lacking in sand. This is in stark contrast to many rivers elsewhere in Botswana that have thick sand beds, like the Ramokgwebana in the north-east.
I’ve tried to establish whether the state of the river bed at Metsimotlhaba village is due to sand mining or if there is some other reason, possibly geological, why there is no sand in the channel.
It is possible that there were historical restrictions to the flow that caused a build up of fine sediment (silts and clays, as visible in the banks) in the riverbed, and now these have either eroded or the land has tilted slightly, with the result that the sediments are now eroding to form the visible channels.
The alternative is that there was a shallow channel with sands, as would be typical elsewhere, and now that the sand has been extracted the increased flow rates are scouring the bed and banks
Exposed bedrock in the river at Metsimotlhaba, side effect of sand ming
River looking downstream at Metsimotlhaba, no motlhaba due to sand mining
Ramokgwebana River
Further upstream there are signs that the thick sand bed does exist, traditional thorn enclosures round hand-dug well points are in evidence, and also more sand mining. Next ride out there I will have to go down to the river and see what kind of sand it is, and maybe see if I can find an old person who might remember back to before Gaborone’s construction boom.
The pictures below show a meander just west of Metsimotlhabe village, between 2002 and 2015 the number of well points has reduced. Different colour spectra makes it difficult to gauge sand content, but considering the generally light nature of 2002 and the reduced number of light patches in 2014 there is a suggestion that the amount of light sand has reduced significantly. The layout of the large compound in the meander is also reminiscent of a brick making yard – the long concrete slab is where fresh bricks are set while the cement cures.
Wellpoints in the riverbed at Metsimotlhaba – 2002
2014 Metsimotlhabe Wellpoints
Wellpoints in the riverbed at Metsimotlhaba – 2015
Other developments in the floodplain are more clearing for agricultural use, which is strange when so many fields lie fallow, obviously not having been ploughed for several years. I understand that people may not have capacity to plough and that we experience unreliable rainfall (heavy drought expected this year), but why can’t agricultural and environmental departments work on getting the already cleared land put to productive use instead of more bush clearing and associated negative impacts?
Despite the various comments from officials about the negative impacts of sand mining in the search results linked above it is clear that the activity is still rife: the truck I found stuck in the river and also in satellite images.
Sand mining and wellpoints in the riverbed near Metsimotlhaba – 2015
