Those who were Early Motivated

Worthy of further thought and comment, was Dr Kesitegile Gobotswang’s comparison in the Weekend Post of 29 October of some of the senior makgoa in today’s government with the earlier arrivals here who, he suggested, were in contrast, motivated by their desire to serve this country to the best of their ability.

These dedicated individuals included, he suggested, Patrick van Rensburg, Quill Hermans, Derek Hudson, and Philip Steenkamp. Because Dr Gobotswang’s  generalised description applied to so many people of so many different kinds in those early pre-diamond years, I thought that we could try grouping them according to  different criteria. Let’s start with van Rensburg, and Liz who hitch hiked down Africa to arrive in Serowe where they were offered jobs teaching in primary schools and a presumably rented rondavel. As far as I know, Werner Groth and family, in Otse, myself (twice), in Mochudi, David Inger in pre-KRDA days in Molepolole and Frank Taylor in Gabane have been the only others to arrive to a completely unstructured situation.  By this I refer to the basics which have normally been provided for others – someone to meet new arrivals off the train or plane, a job description and contract, housing, transport and so on. 

But then, Pat and Liz, Tom Holzinger, probably and myself in our second incarnations may be the only ones - certainly long term – to get ourselves here under our own steam. Then, we may need to think about the many volunteers who came, stayed on, or later returned. The patriarch of this particular group could be the forester, Ralph Nickerson alias the occasional contributor to the press, Rre Ditlhare. Others in this group would include David Inger, Charley Coyne, Chris Sharp, Brian Ardern, Tom Holzinger and possibly Neil Parsons. But there is another group of remarkable people who arrived here from elsewhere with their service to the country straddling Independence.

Editor's Comment
Congratulations Anicia Gaothuse!

The contest had 10 beautiful young girls as finalists and unfortunately only one could wear the crown.The judges picked Anicia Gaothuse. To all those who feel their contestant should have won ahead of Anicia for whatever reason, hardly; the judges found Anicia to be the best among the best, so desist from disrespecting our newly crowned queen on social media or anywhere else, for that matter! Each of the 10 beautiful young women had supporters...

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