Zambia World Wide

D) Installation of a PABX and laying of underground cables in Orapa.

Just before going permanently to Orapa the Botswana Government gave me a Government house No T29 as my plot was in the throws of being sold.

In the beginning stages of Orapa it was only necessary for us to visit the mine when required. Once the new offices and houses were completed Orapa Mine wanted a P.A.B.X. installed with extensions to the offices, plant and houses. I was asked if I wouldn’t mind doing the job as I had just completed laying a cable to the outskirts of Francistown and the construction of an open wire route up to the Orapa turn off. Digging the trench for the cable I hired 20 temporary labourers. To spend more time with the open wire construction squad I split the temporary labourers up in pairs. Each evening I would measure out a section that they had to complete for the day. On the third day I arrived at the site around 1100hrs and found they had all completed digging their sections and had already left. I was highly disgusted with myself thinking that I had underestimated the distance that each pair could dig in a day. The next morning at 0800hrs I was on the site. Instead of finding 20 labourers digging there must have been around sixty digging or wielding a pick. These labourers had brought their wives and children along with the necessary implements to help them dig. They would start digging as soon as it was light.

If I accepted the government’s request it meant that I would be in Orapa for sometime. The Government agreed that I could retain the house in Francistown and that I could make use of government transport to transport Christine and Stephen to and from boarding school in Marula approximately 68kms south of Bulawayo. With my meeting I had with the Orapa mine manager he offered me a house (number D41) fully furnished with air conditioning and I would also be allowed to make use of all the mine facilities free of charge. He informed me that no telephone wires had to be above the ground. To meet this requirement the mine was prepared to give me accommodation for a maximum of six labourers to assist with tasks such as the fitting of telephones, the installation of the PABX, installing of distribution points and cable jointing. The digging and closing of the trenches and helping with laying of cables would be done by the mines. He told me if there is anything I needed I must just approach the person in charge and should there be any problem I must refer them to him. The mines were also prepared to pay for the cable When I left Orapa I sold my buffalo mount to the Orapa Club for R150.

On arriving in Orapa the first thing I did was to mark out the cable runs so that the mine labourers could get started. Once the mine employees started digging the trenches we had to spark to get our cables laid. While the mine had labourers digging trenches in the built up areas they had a front-end digger on the open stretches. It must be said that the laying of the cables were completed well ahead of the scheduled time. Instead of making dugouts or manholes I designed a pillar so that the cables could be joined above the ground. When I started teaching one of my labourers’s how to join the cable I found that he often got the sequence wrong as he had difficulty in distinguishing between blue and green. To overcome the problem I got him to keep some green grass or leaf with him so that he could compare the colours. Believe it or not this worked.

According to him a similar idea was used to help their parents during the last world war. They apparently could not get use to the Left – Right instructions when marching. To overcome this they were told to hold grass in their left hand and paper in their right hand. While marching they would receive the instruction Gras – Papier, Gras –Papier (Afrikaans for Grass- Paper) .With the instruction “gras” they would raise their left arm holding the grass and on the command “papier” they would raise their right arm holding the paper.