Meet Goboza, the multi-faceted entrepreneur
Lesang Maswabi | Tuesday October 24, 2023 06:00
Goboza is an established auto electrician-cum-electrician, farmer, and philanthropist as evidenced by the giving that I would witness him extending to his community over the days that I visited him.
I first encountered Goboza at a nearby Good-Price Shopping Mall where I had been hanging at the complex’s terrace with some locals that I had been introduced to by a childhood friend, Stephen Boipuso Sephiri.
This was not just any ordinary Saturday, as it did not only mark Botswana's Independence celebrations that fell on September 30, 2023 but also Sephiri’s birthday, hence his middle name.
We had gathered there for a mini-celebration of Sephiri’s day. Hardly an hour had passed before we could settle down when a rugged white Toyota double-cab van parked by the adjoining parking lot opposite the eatery where we were seated. A craggy middle-aged and dark-complexioned man donning unkept salt and pepper dreadlocks that almost matched his beat-up van immediately disembarked from the truck. As soon as the man approached the terrace/stoop, I would suddenly be shaken into lucid thinking by a rapture of laughter and a roar of cynical comments from my companions directed at the placid bloke. Though I did not bother to ask them at the time why they had behaved in such a manner, I hazarded a guess they had belittled him because of his waifish appearance. What impressed me about the chap though was his 'pay no mind' attitude to the fellas as he just went about his business and left without bothering to engage them. The following Sunday afternoon, I would embark on a five-kilometre walk from my area to the only ATMs in Metsimotlhabe by the Choppies and Sefalana shopping complexes.
As fate would have it, before I could join the main Molepolole and Gaborone road, I would spot the gentle soul that 'my friends' mocked the previous day standing next to a broken-down bus situated at a Y-Junction. Interestingly, the bus had an eye-catching insignia 'Food On The Bus' scribbled on the side. For the first time, we would lock eyes and wave at each other in wordless acknowledgement as I proceeded with my long walk. Upon my return from the worthless trip to the ATMs along the same route, I would find the somewhat lonely bloke walking up and about his property, mainly occupied by the bus. Just as I was about to walk past after waving at him, he would not only wave back but this time uttered the following words, “A gaketse matimone” loosely translated to mean “demons are on fire”.
That immediately caught my attention and caused me to instantly turn back and head in his direction. I then asked him to repeat what he had said moments earlier as I was not sure I had heard him properly, which he did. This time with more emphasis, “Kare, a gaketse matimone” (I am saying the 'demons are on fire'). That caused me to grab one of his empty gallons and use it as a makeshift stool. I began to quiz him to expound as to what he meant. He would continue, “Rra, ke go bone gore ga oa iketla mo moeng, o na le stress” (Sir, I could see that you’re not at ease, you have stress). His quick observation and utterances to me had come as a total surprise, as he had been accurate. Yes, my stress levels had reached fever-pitch because of some upsetting matter at the beginning of that long weekend, stretching to the very moment Goboza observed my distress on the last day of the holiday, Tuesday. All the same, Goboza’s divination had not only grabbed my attention but also intrigued me enough to interrogate him on his livelihood. In fair exchange, I too confessed what I was going through to him.
Our brief chat would in no time lead us to discover a lot about each other, especially concerning relatives. Regarding his mobile restaurant concept within the bus, Goboza told me that he was about to reopen for business after I asked if it was operating. Though a hard worker, Goboza bemoaned the ravaging and raging crime that he and other community members have often fallen victim to. “Magodu! Goromente o re bolaisitse bana ba ba sa tseneng dikolo ba bathong. Ba goga metokwane, ba gobea mo mebileng, ba a re senyetsa” (Thugs! Government has unleashed youth that are roaming the streets, not going to school. They are stealing from us). Like most Batswana, Goboza believes government lost the plot when it took over the late Patrick Van Rensburg’s brigades and ran them down when they could have absorbed many of today’s drop-outs roaming the streets. "Mme ga se bone hela, bangwe magodu ke batsadi ba bone. Ba heditse dikolobe tsame, ba di utswile. Ke ne kena le dikolobe di se kana ka sepe." (They (youth) are not the only ones who steal from me. Their parents too. They have cleaned me out of my pigs.I used to have many pigs.) One negative moan about Goboza though, that left me wondering, is from my landlord Scala Ngake, who lives about a kilometre from Goboza's compound. Upon discovering that I was penning an article on Endboy, she would scream, “Oh! ene yo, ene yo dikolobe tsa gagwe di mpheleditseng ditlhare ka ha lebotaneng? O ska wa bua sepe ka motho yo!” (Oh! This one, the one whose pigs razed through my plants along the wall. Don’t say anything about that chap).
This assertion would, however, be dismissed by an immediate neighbour of Goboza, Boiki Sengwatse.
He said, that actually, people have often stolen from Goboza. Goboza, who also owns a piggery, is of the Nkane kraal of Sengwa in Gakurwe and was born in 1969. He began his primary education in Kuredza Kadoma in Chiedza at Kwekwe Primary School and proceeded to Kwekwe High School, eventually graduating as a semi-skilled engineer at Kwekwe Polytechnic.