Fortune Smiles On Ipelegeng Hustler
Monkagedi Gaothobogwe | Monday October 31, 2016 16:41
The competition also empowered 10 lucky winners as well as giving away cash prizes of over P70,000.
For the last 13 years Selaelo, 29, of Goo-Moremi village, along the Tswapong Hills, has been a full time Ipelegeng worker, living on about P500 a month to keep her family of four surviving. She says since the death of her husband within a month of their marriage in 2003, she has been oscillating between Ipelegeng and cluster policing programme.
Her explanation as to how she got herself lucky to make it into the draw for the grand prize is a little touching too. Selaelo, the mother of three says she goes to Sefalana to buy in bulk necessities that would last her family at least into another month.
Her manner of celebrating the new tractor was perplexing, as she did not appear to show any emotions, no smile, no fist punching, just coldness leaving many to conclude she had not been lucky.
“I was shocked, really shocked. I was trembling and shaking. I ran out of emotions to express my feeling and I collapsed,” she said.
Selaelo is also a regular farmer, having worked on her masimo in the last four years, and hiring other people’s tractors in the process.
She says she traditionally ploughs only two hectors, although she hopes this time around things will change for the better.
Selalelo speaks with fondness on the prospects of using the tractor and plough combo to elevate her family to another level.
She says she has seen from her own community what owning a tractor is capable of doing; being able to buy another tractor, build a house, buy a car, and generally transform the day to day living standard of a family.
Her thoughts are on these prospects as she ponders on the magical world the tractor can make for her and family.
Amongst the 10 winners was also a certain young man, Kgakollo Radikhadi of Tsabong, who describes himself as a junior secondary school drop out who has been earning a living as a taxi driver since last year.Radikhadi says since he dropped out from Letsopa JSS in Lobatse in 2008, his life had been revolving around menial jobs as a casual labourer in various companies.
Radikhadi says he relied on a good samaritan to donate to him the letter, ‘S’ to complete the Sefalana word that earned him a place in the grand finale. The youngster however says she has numerous driving licences for Class B, Class H, Class C, and feels very confident and fit to drive his newly acquired tractor and plough combo. Radikhadi says it will be his first time to experience cropping with a tractor. All his entire life, his family had been using donkeys to pull the plough, and says the tractor will be a completely new innovation.