Dumelang through the eyes of acquaintances
Ntibinyane Ntibinyane | Thursday October 23, 2014 17:09
*Says a school friend: “He is not after popularity.
He is not after fame. Fame is after him.
He is a calm leader. Dumelang always said ‘it will always seem impossible until it’s done’.
He has done the impossible in his life and he can do well for Botswana.”
*“A fiery orator, Dumelang was the students’ darling,” says a UB acquaintance
Is Botswana Congress Party (BCP) President Dumelang Saleshando ready to become the country’s fifth president of the republic of Botswana?
Perhaps the right people to answer this question are his close friends, men that have known him for decades – from the dusty streets of Selebi Phikwe, the dormitories of St Joseph College to the corridors and lecture rooms of the University of Botswana (UB).
Dumelang Saleshando was born 43 years ago to a middle class family, the first born of five sons. His father Gilson is a well-known opposition politician and also the former BCP leader.
His mother Keatlaretse Dolly Saleshando was an accomplished career nurse. As a result of his parents’ nomadic lifestyle, from an early age, Saleshando was always on the move.
He started his primary school at Rachele Primary School in Kanye. He briefly moved to Lobatse where Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) employed his father.
In the early 1980s Dumelang found himself in the copper mining town of Selebi-Phikwe where his father had found employment at BCL mine. The family eventually settled in Selebi-Phikwe.
It was in Selebi-Phikwe that the young Saleshando met his childhood friend Benjamin Mafa. The year was 1981.
“Dumelang and I were new students at Kopano English Medium School. Previously we had been in public schools but we now found ourselves in an English medium institution.
“That time Kopano had more white learners than Batswana students and in those cases it was easy for Batswana students to easily relate to one another. He also related well with friends like Sipho Ziga.”
“What also brought them together was the duo’s (Saleshando and Ziga) inability to communicate in English. “Eish go ne go le thata. Sekgoa se ne se pala.”
“Though the two boys who came from completely different backgrounds struggled to fit into a white school they didn’t struggle to find each other. A friendship that would endure for more than three decades and to this day, was born under those difficult circumstances,” Mafa reminisced.
In his own assessment, Dumelang or Dums, as he is often fondly called, was a very timid and sickly person through their stay at Kopano.
His joke heavily laced with schoolboy mischief he said conspiratorially as he burst into a fit of laughter: “Dumelang o ne a tshabelelwa ke Malwetse a sekgoa,” he said without going into details about the ailments.
He continued, “As a result he wasn’t heavily involved in sport. He tried tennis and swimming but he was never included in the school team. Like myself we were more of spectators than participants.
“When it came to academics he was an above average student. I wouldn’t say he was a genius but he was consistently above average.”
In 1985, the two boys parted ways after the standard seven examinations. Saleshando was admitted at St Joseph’s College for his Form 1, while Mafa was at Selebi-Phikwe Senior Secondary School.
The two however continued seeing each other during school vacations and writing letters to each other until they reunited three years later.
“It was difficult to be apart. He was more than a friend. He was a brother. After I finished my Junior Certificate I successfully convinced my parents to find me a place at St Joseph’s College. Once more, we reunited and our friendship grew even more,” he said.
At St Joseph’s the sickly and timid Dumelang faced a completely different environment. For the first time since his early primary school days, Dumelang was back at a public school, this time as a boarding student – hundreds of kilometers away from his parents and siblings.
It was during his early days at St Joseph’s that he met Dick Mading another timid and also sickly student. “We were both medically challenged. We were struggling with different illnesses and this brought us close to one another,” Mading takes over the story.
Mading and Dumelang’s mothers were both nurses and did all they could to make sure their sickly sons were well looked after in a not so friendly boarding environment. “Whenever his mother visited him (at St Joseph’s), she would make sure that she gave me his medication and briefly tutored me on how to administer it whenever he (Dumelang) was in need of it.
“The same applied to my mother; she would give directions to Dumelang on how to administer the medication to me whenever I had an asthma attack.
“As a result we became each other’s nurses. We cared for one another, he was my mother and I was his,” said Mading, the younger brother to former Zebras goalkeeper China Mading.
Charismatic student activist
According to Mafa, after he was reunited with Dumelang at St Joseph’s, he found a different person to the one he met at Kopano English Medium School a few years earlier.
He had taken keen interest in student politics. Mafa vividly remembers an incident in which he (Mafa) and other students orchestrated a student protest over poor conditions at the school.
“We approached Dumelang and Michael Kaote (RB1 presenter) who were prefects at that time about our grievances. They took them to the school management, but the school principal and her management didn’t listen to them.
“Dumelang and other guys, including Kaote were unhappy with this and embarked on a hunger strike that lasted a full week – that was a first for St Joseph,” he said
Mafa said that during that period Dumelang showed leadership and maturity. He emerged a capable leader.
“Together with other student leaders, in particular the more militant Kaote, he (Dumelang) organised a march to the Ministry of Education headquarters. As soon as we arrived in Gaborone we were met with no-nonsense and heavily armed Special Support Group (SSG) officers.
“There was panic among the students. But Dumelang and his team identified themselves to the officers as leaders of the strike. They tried to reason with the officers that they were not fighting anybody, but they were briefly detained. “Even after their release, they ensured the students did not resort to violence in their efforts to seek redress for their grievances. The students were itching for a fight (with school management) but Dumelang and his team appealed for calm. Eventually part of our grievances were addressed.”
At St Joseph’s, Mafa and Dumelang, together with more militant students like Solly Nageng, Mike Mothibi and others became members of Botswana Socialist Youth also known as BS1.
“At that time we felt that BNF was misguided and we had to save it from itself and that it was losing its focus as a socialist movement. Some of us were hardcore socialists, but Dumelang wasn’t, even though he was part of us. He later became more involved in the politics of the BNF at the UB,” said Mading, adding that Dumelang was a passionate debater who was also part of the St Joseph’s debating team.
At St Joseph’s, Dumelang was also an actor, something that is known to few people. At St. Joseph he performed one of Shakespeare’s tragedies, Macbeth. “As the lead actor – Macbeth, he spent nights memorising the script and performed the role exceptionally well. He did that before hordes of students,” said Mading.
According to Mafa, despite having a political life, it did not distract Dumelang from his schoolwork.
“He continued to do well academically. But let me stress this: Dumelang particularly abhorred chemistry. At times he wouldn’t even attend chemistry classes. He felt that chemistry wasn’t practical. Despite that, he passed his Form 5,” he said. After completion of their secondary education Saleshando and Mading seriously thought of joining Botswana Telecommunication Corporation as technicians.
“We had made up our minds that we were joining BTC. The money was good. We later changed our minds after guidance from our parents and we ended up going to UB,” he said.
UB politics
When he entered UB, his father was an active BNF politician; he would later become MP for Selebi-Phikwe. The young Saleshando also felt the urge to actively participate in politics. In fact at UB his father’s popularity made Dumelang the talk of the university. Students and lecturers wanted to know more about Dumelang the son of Saleshando.
“He became one of the militant MASS leaders. A fiery orator, Dumelang became the students’ darling. While in his second year at UB, Saleshando took a bold decision to challenge his comrade Gaolapelwe Ketlogetswe for the SRC presidency. “That was a brave decision. I was part of Dums team then. I was together with guys like Dutch Leburu (a leading Gaborone lawyer) but the seniors made fun of Saleshando’s challenge.
“They ridiculed him and depicted him as an inexperienced leader. At one point they caricatured him and drew him with a napkin and pacifier. This was meant to show that he was not ready to take over the SRC presidency.
“Despite the mocking Dums was not bothered as he went ahead and stood against Ketlogetswe. He lost. But for us it was a victory in defeat. We had made a point,” said Mading.
While at UB Saleshando, Mading and Mafa met an outspoken law student Dutch Leburu (who was a lead campaigner for Saleshando’s bid to be SRC president). Leburu would later play a pivotal role in Saleshando’s life.
“When law students attacked Dumelang with their fancy English and legal jargon, Leburu was always by his side, he counseled and encouraged him to march on. He told him that legal jargon meant nothing and that he should face his English-speaking rivals.
“To this day Dutch is our point of convergence. I am sure Dumelang consults him more regularly about so many things,” said Mading.
Ketlogetswe would later reconcile with Saleshando. Together with other students, at one point they hatched a plan that would go down in the history of Botswana as an attempted ‘coup’ by UB students.
At the spur of the moment, the students planned to invade Parliament, allegedly to topple the government. Word in Parliament was that Dumelang was behind the proposed invasion and that the students wanted to install his father Gilson as head of state. The plan crumbled right before the corridors of Parliament.
It was a near success, though, but security agents were ready to quell the impromptu insurrection engineered by the angry crowd of students before they could cause any damage.
Academically, Saleshando performed well at UB. He majored in Economics and Political Science. He took his studies seriously and played a role in setting up the UB small business clinic.
He did this with the help of the Association of International Students Interested in Science, Economics and Management (AISISEM). Through the organisation, Dumelang and Mading travelled extensively around the world.
Tragic family loss
While at UB, Dumelang lost his mother in a tragic car accident. Dumelang, according to his friends, was extremely close to his mother. His mother was an independent woman who through hard work had achieved a lot in life.
From an early age his mother, like the protective mother hen, wanted to shield her children from active politics.
“One day I went to their house wearing a t-shirt with the picture of BNF leader (Kenneth) Koma only to be scolded for that. She didn’t want to expose her children to politics at an early age. But on the other hand, Dumelang was close to his father when it came to politics.”
“To Saleshando Mma Dumelang was a role model and losing her was just simply too tragic. ““We met at UB one day and he broke the news to me that he had lost his mother in a car accident. It was a sudden death and that was painful to him and his family. That was one of the few occasions in my life that I saw him shed a tear. He was in pain. He wasn’t hysterical but he was in pain,” remembered Mafa.
According to Mading, Dumelang didn’t have much time to grieve the loss of his mother.
“As the first born, he had to collect himself put on a brave face and take a leadership role in the family. He literally took over the role of being a ‘mother’ to his four brothers. “His father was always busy in politics and the role of raising his siblings was left to Dumelang. It has been years since his mother died, but I still fail to understand how he coped with it. It was amazing. He handled the loss well,” said Mading.
But Mafa believes that behind the façade Dumelang is still saddened by his mother’s death to this day. “Of course he wouldn’t show emotions before his brothers but when we are together he still talks about her,” he said.
After UB Dumelang joined First National Bank Botswana as a trainee manager. His stay at FNB was short-lived after he was summarily dismissed, allegedly for leaking information that the ruling party received millions of Pula from De Beers. FNB later settled the matter out-of-court after he challenged them in court.
The family man
It is not clear how he met his wife, but his friends say it must have been at the UB small business clinic – the unit that he set up. That was in the 1990s. The two dated for years before they married in 2002. Mading said he was surprised when Dumelang told him that he was getting married. “I asked him, ‘what do you say to your parents when you want to get married?’ His response was, ‘you will know what to say when you reach that stage’. From our group of friends he was the first to get married. Dums and Dineo live a stable life. Some of us refer to him for marital advice and he is always willing to help. He is an example to us,” said Mading.
Dumelang and his wife have three children – two boys and a girl. Dineo is Dumelang’s passionate supporter. During his launch Dineo described her husband as a capable man who is ready to become the country’s next leader.
Is he ready for the job?
For Mafa, there is no doubt the boy he met in 1981 has matured and is ready to become Botswana’s President. “Yes he can lead (the country). I have watched him over the years as he rose to become one of the political forces in the country. He is ready. This is a man who is not afraid to take charge of a situation. Even when he disagrees with you, if a majority takes the decision he abides by it. That’s the Dumelang I know. “ For Mading, Saleshando is a humble man who would make a humble president.
“He is not a show man who is after popularity. He is not after fame. Fame is after him. He is a calm leader. For many years Dumelang said to us that ‘it will always seem impossible until it’s done’. He has done the impossible in his life and he can do well for Botswana,” said Mading.
Saleshando has been the MP for Gaborone Central for 10 years and is seeking re-election. His star in both the BCP and Botswana politics has been rising since 2004 when he was first elected to parliament. At one stage he was the Leader of Opposition in Parliament.