Maid, political friend reminisce about Rra Gaone
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday June 30, 2017 18:05
And no one speaks well of all his virtues than all the industrial class workers who were of service during his presidential tenure. Bontleeng Mokotedi worked as a State House cleaner during the founding president Sir Seretse Khama’s time and shone floors and maintained tidiness through Masire’s time and left her fond job when President Ian Khama took office.
She has beautiful memories of how the country was built from nothing to the middle class economy it is today. “When Masire took over as the president, he called all the workers who were then working at the State House and asked us not to fear him as he was our father. That alone made us comfortable. He indeed treated us like his children and he would not eat his lunch while others did not eat.
“He did not care whether you are a cleaner, gardener, messenger or driver. He believed in sharing and lunch or dinner was served to all who were working there,” Mokotedi said. Mokotedi said Masire or Rra Gaone was an excellent communicator. She continued: “The good thing about him was that he would classify everyone as his children. One thing he emphasised on was that people should make sure that his visitors were given good hospitality at all times”.
She would say: “Ke batla baeng bame ba itse dijo tsa Setswana le monate wa tsone eseng tse tsa Seesemane (I want my visitors to now the Setswana cuisine and appreciate its taste and the English cuisine).”
She added that Masire liked Setswana cuisine especially dikgobe tsa ditoo. The day that Mokotedi never forgets is the time when they received a call from the State House that the Angolans mistook Masire’s presidential plane for an enemy aircraft and shot it down, injuring him.
“At that time there was panic at the State House and people were crying. Everything had to stop and some pastors arrived. We were told that Masire suffered cuts on his back and his protocol officer was also injured when the presidential jet was attacked. An hour pray was held for God to protect him and to be returned home. It was so painful,” she recalled.
She said the day Masire arrived he was shocked to find all State House workers and his family there. Though he was in pain, he quipped: “Koo teng nele ititaganya le akanya gore ke sule. Ke nna yo (You may have been crying uncontrollably thinking that I am dead. But here I am)”.
Mokotedi revealed that the deceased statesman put more trust on his workers to a point that he would ask them to accompany him on his country tour trips because he wanted them to guide people who were cooking whenever there was an event. During Masire’s lying-in-state Mmegi also met William Babish who was especially elected councillor in 1965 for Kalfontein-Tsootsha ward in Gantsi. Babish reminisced how he became friends with Masire.
He said: “I became friends with Masire because of politics and farming. I was appointed as a specially nominated councillor for the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) when our country had nothing then. Things were different from now; we believed much in consultation because our former presidents emphasised it most. That also made me very close to people because I left active politics in 1993”.
He said by then Batswana wanted to see their country moving forward and being developed.
Babish said the ruling party and the opposition used to have meetings to discuss development because Masire believed that being a member of a certain party does not make one to be an enemy. He emphasised that Masire loved farming very much.
“I remember that he used to bring his maize and sorghum for me to sell them on his behalf. He would buy cattle from Gantsi. We used to share ideas in farming and travel together to South Africa to benchmark on better ways of farming. If things were working according to his plan, he wished Botswana could one day export food to other countries.”
He said though Masire could achieve all his dreams, one thing that made him happy was that Botswana peacefully attained its Independence.