Collett the phenom of Mmamashia

GREG KELEBONYE
Staff Writer | Monday November 1, 2010 00:00

 

The man drives the truck while on his belly, and like the phenom that you will realise he is upon chatting with him, does it with great dexterity. But driving while lying on your belly? That's a first. And you are right.

The man does it though, not because he wants to amuse anybody or cause accidents. He is a paraplegic, and has been in that state for the last 34 years, thanks to a rebounding bullet.

'I was in the Rhodesian army - a young 26-year-old male, full of zest, when a ricochet got me on the spine. Technically they call it a level T4 injury, meaning I got injured on the fourth thoracic vertebrae. This means I am paralyzed from the breast bone down, and I guess a little higher, life would have been difficult,' he says simply.

Difficult? You wonder. Here is a man who has only his thorax taking instructions from him and he does not see anything difficult about life. Nonsense, he says. Too many people spend precious time complaining about nothing when they could be doing something better with their lives.

'Look I have full use of my chest and upper back muscles and my arms, and I can do a whole lot of things.' And you got to believe Dale, as he prefers to be addressed.  Dale owns IOU Botswana, a debt collection company that he started when he came to Botswana 10 years back.

'The business includes tracing people - some of whom may have disappeared or died, and that means having to drive around all over,' he submits. The longest trip he has ever driven was an around Botswana debtors follow-up which he did in 10 days.

He went from Gaborone to Kang, Maun, Francistown, Selebi-Phikwe, Palapye, Mahalapye and back to Gaborone within that time.

'At the time I was sitting and not lying on my belly. I travelled with one of my six staffers,' he explains. So the man can drive seated. Therein lies the problem, he says.

' I developed a lot of pressure sores from sitting and lying on my back and I spent a lot of time in hospital, and it occurred to me that I could drive while lying on my belly.'  The idea hit him like a thunderbolt and he immediately approached GWM principal dealers, brothers Leon and Kenneth Williams, to have a customised vehicle that would allow him to drive while lying on his belly.

'The guys fitted the hand controls and did the conversion - and they never charged me a thebe, which was very kind of them considering I was ready to add it to the cost of the vehicle. They spent hours trying to figure it out, putting it out and back together. And there are not many people today who would do things for free,' he reasons.

The brothers created linkages connecting the foot controls to hand controlled levers on the steering column for accelerator and brake and on the side of the gear lever for clutch control. They removed the cab rear window and panel effectively converting the vehicle into a panel van. Then they installed into that space a bed, which they mounted on rails to allow for it to be slid in and out of the vehicle through the tailgate. Next to the bed is space for Dale's wheelchair.' And so Dale took his new drive-on-my-belly van and 'hit the road'. He was on his way to becoming the spectacle, the mystery man who attracts amused and bewildered stares whenever he passes by in the van.

' You see when I am on the road, I am not the danger, but the people who are looking at me,' he says. In fact recently a woman driver almost smashed her vehicle into a minibus when she saw Dale's seemingly acrobatic frame in the van. In her bewilderment she let go of her steering wheel and turning her head, and absolutely amazed, began to clap her hands.

Only the honking by other motorists warning her that she was about to cause an accident brought her back to reality. And her stuntman was long gone! Equally bewildered were the police who did not know what to make of the special case called Dale Collet.

' I drove for about a year and the police summoned me to Broadhurst Police Station. They said they did not know what to do with me. Ultimately I had to see the director of traffic who told me that their job as the police is to enforce the law, but that they were not sure if my situation was legal; so he asked me to go to the Department of Transport,' he says. At Transport the officers checked the hand controls, observed how he was lying and if everything was safe for him and other road users.

'They said there was no reason why I couldn't drive lying on my belly. The quality of the hand controls was very good, they said. So they put together a complete report, which I carry around with me,' he says. He wants to believe that following the report both the police division of Traffic and the Transport department briefed their officers on his situation. This is because he has not been bothered by anyone ever since. Dale's simple philosophy is that nothing is impossible: 'Obviously I am grateful to the police for allowing me to prove myself. I could have argued until I was blue in the face, but they gave me a chance.' But you need to work hard to make what seems impossible, possible, especially if you have a disability.

'My experience is that people with disabilities work harder because they know they have to keep their jobs,' he says. And able-bodied people need to give those with disabilities an opportunity to prove themselves, he says.The man will not suffer lazy people - disabled or not.

' Disability does not mean inability. Sure there are some people with disabilities who play on their disability, but then we have able-bodied people who wait for government handouts, complaining there is no rain, no this. I am most annoyed by able-bodied people who complain how tough life is - and they will say that to me while I am sitting in a wheelchair as if I am privileged,' he says disdainfully.

He wonders why people simply will not work as hard as Tshidi Maele, one of his two trusted employees.

'You see, Tshidi has one leg, which she lost years back in a car accident, but this good-hearted woman works like she were able-bodied, never complaining, meticulously doing her job,' he says. In fact Maele's attitude has caused him to conclude thus: IF YOU ARE STARTING A JOB, HIRE A WOMAN - ONE WITH DISABILITY.

Women, he says, are already disadvantaged by the system, and it is worse for them if they are disabled. For as long as he remembers he has always had a person with disability working for him.

'People with disability need a break. When they get the job they work hard because they know not too many people are willing to give them a chance,' he says. 

He is also impressed by Kabo Matlho, a local musician who was born without limbs. ' I like that young man's attitude towards life. And I have told him dreams do come true.

Anything is possible as long as you are determined and believe,' he says. Matlho has already impressed with his flawless voice and was a few years back selected as one of top My Star performers, earning himself a contract to record in London. What Dale cannot understand are people who appear to live comfortably, yet fail to service their debts.

'When a fellow comes to me wearing expensive shoes, shirt and trousers and tells me he cannot pay because life is tough, I tell him it is none of my business. I may sound cruel, but honestly I would rather pay attention if it were a guy wearing car-tyre sandals,' he says and explains why he would not stand a person who lives beyond his means, and will not put extra effort to make his situation better.

'When I came to Botswana I was sleeping in the office, washing in the basin. I would let everyone else go and then switch off the lights and just sit. Bedtime, I would curl up on the sofa. A friend heard that I was sleeping in the factory and took me in. During my stay with him I managed to save some money and the rest is history,' he says. That history is what has now been replaced by a16-hectare farm in Mmamashia. That is in addition to the business.

' I bought this land about eight years ago and put up what you are seeing,' he says as he asks Barbara, the house help - really his right hand person - to bring some drinks, in perfect isiNdebele.

He also speaks Shona, although not to the extent he does the isiNdebele. Dale's hard work is manifest in his farm. Here he plants onions, butternuts, chomollia, chillies and others.

'We try to be self-sufficient,' he says. The farm has two boreholes both of which give about 4,000 litres of water per hour, which is just about suffices. Dale uses an engine to generate electricity for the farm. He personally does rounds of the farm - on his 260 cc quad on which he has also mounted a bed and rides lying on his belly, to make sure everything is alright.

' I decided to mount this bed on the quad because previously if I needed to go around I had to do that on the bakkie. It just wasn't working,' he says as he fiddles with the gear lever, having transferred now from the van to the quad bike. He does most of the job on the farm himself.

' Yes I have friends who come to help, but I also go help - it's all give and take.' Dale believes that something inside of him - determination and belief that life is not as gloomy as people make it to appear is what drives him.

'Certainly my training as a soldier taught me discipline. If you have men under your command, then you have to be disciplined.

Obviously you have a different outlook on life than a civilian, but that does not mean civilians with disability cannot do anything to better their lives,' he argues. A recipient of the Silver Cross of Rhodesia, the second highest military order for gallantry, then Dale believes that the disabled should prove themselves to become agents of change. ' It is not enough to just make demands,' he reasons. But he wishes people would stop taking their disabled family members to rural areas.

'Where are all the people in wheelchairs? Research has shown that many of those who are taken to rural areas die within a few months of their release from hospital because the environment simply won't support them. I live in what you would call a first world environment, but I get pressure sores. I need Barbara to help take care of me when I have diarrhoea, to clean my linen and ensure that the hygiene is acceptable. What about these people once they are taken to rural areas?' he says.

Dale says he refuses to get bogged down on seeing only negative things that God throws at us mortals. Yes, he has had his low moments, such as when he and his wife of 16 years parted.

'Like all good guys I got married in '78. We have two boys. But we divorced in '92. Yes it was tough and I blamed myself for the breakup,' he says. But Dale could not afford to wallow in self pity. He got up and, ever independent, shaped his own destiny.

As the sun sets, the sparrow can be heard chirping, and the dove droning.

About a hundred meters eastward a wild rabbit dashes by. The night birds zoom past, and we know it is time to leave this quite peaceful place. It has been an inspiring conversation, we tell Dale, meaning every word.

' Be free to visit any time,' he says nicely. As we leave John Hardy, a friend of Dale's words ring in my mind: Here is a summary of the man. Tell him you can't do something and he will do it. Give him what five men can't do and sure, he will do it!