Remembering Tshimologo Boitumelo, a fiery yet gentle character

ERNEST KELAPILE
Correspondent | Friday April 27, 2012 00:00

 

The office clowns, the likes of photographer Tsele Tsebetsame would cheer his charismatic and bold personality shouting: 'Jola Jola wa ba ntwana! My love is not for sale.' His middle name was Jola. It is amusing how I got to know Boitumelo. Unbeknown to me then, we ended up becoming friends and later a family friends. I made a phone call to the Midweek Sun offices in May 1998, just after my National Service (Tirelo Sechaba) at the Department of Information and Broadcasting where I was based at Radisele, near Palapye. I requested to speak to the editor. I was then transferred to Boitumelo's desk and I told him of my passion for news writing. He advised me to send a sample of my work. He liked my piece and the story got published. I then started corresponding for the newspaper from Selebi-Phikwe.

Tshimologo and I had never met in person. Later on during the year, we made an appointment to meet. I arrived at the Midweek Sun offices at around 10 am, just after their editorial meeting. As I was standing by the corridor, waiting to be ushered into his office, a huge frame came tumbling out of the office, pushing me to the wall howling,' A ko le nne le tshaba mo tseleng!'

Before I could even open my mouth, he was already by the reception area on his way out, but I heard the receptionist calling out to him. 'Mr B2 motho yoo mo passaging yole ke moeng wa gago a re o bidiwa Ernest Kelapile (That person standing by the passage is your visitor. He said he is called Ernest Kelapile). I noticed his discomposure as he made a turn to usher me into the office. He then apologised profusely, explaining that his temper was flaring because the editorial meeting he had just come out of had been quite heated. That was Boitumelo's character. One moment he was temperamental and the other he would be humble. Needless to say, we then warmed to each other and as they say, the rest is history.

We lost contact soon after he left the Midweek Sun to try his luck in politics. We were to be re-united again at Mmegi after he was appointed the Sports Editor of the then Segogwane way based weekly. Having seen him fuming like a wounded buffalo and throwing me against the wall, I was aware of the character I was dealing with.

At Mmegi I found him with a team of talented sports reporters in the likes of Modirwa Kekwaletswe, Kagiso Sekokonyane, Dennis Keagile, Lekopanye Mooketsi and Remmington Mwelwa. Back then, he was shared an office with Gideon Nkala and Morongwa Phala. We worked very hard and won many sports awards. In those days, I was still studying at the University of Botswana. I remember how he would pick me up during my free time to 'chase for stories' around town or to attend press conferences.  Our inseparable friendship led to some of our office colleagues in the likes of the current Mmegi Acting Editor Wene Owino, Kekwaletswe, Sekokonyane and Meshack Tamocha nick-naming me 'Mjolweni' , meaning the young Jola.  

Since I moved around with him a lot, his lovable character made me acquaint  with a lot of people both in and out of the office in a short space of time. One thing I recall about him is that he was strict about the delivery of quality stories. I remember how Mwelwa used to 'cry' endlessly, complaining that 'B2', as Boitumelo was affectionately known to his colleagues and friends, was always unfair on him.

Little did he know that we all had our fair share of grilling! On one particular occasion, B2 assigned me a story but when the deadline came, I had still not completed it. He phoned me fuming, demanding to know where the story was. He refused to accept any of my meek alibis that I was busy with my school work.

On another occasion, I had written what I considered a beautiful piece, but 'B2' did not use the story in the Mmegi edition. I then moved it to The Monitor folder but he did not use it either. He then later caught me busy at the computer, trying to update it, so that I could move it back to the Mmegi folder. He pressed my head harshly against the table shouting in disgust 'Young man, look for fresh news and stop moving stale stories from one folder to another!'

Boitumelo was not shy to throw a reporter into the twist and turns of the profession making him/her develop survival skills. That is the 'B2' I knew and will miss him so much. There was one memorable time when Mmegi graphic designer, Shadrack 'Shaduff' Balang got a taste of Boitumelo's 'other character'. There was an office conversation on the then Township Rollers kingpin Pio Paul. Balang claimed ignorance on who Paul was. Boitumelo modestly responded,' Ware ga o itse Pio Paul, me o ne o mokanamisitse mo pampiring maloba. Next time o ko o mmeye sentle! (You say you do not know Pio Paul while the other day you placed his picture up-side down in the newspaper, next time try to put it up-right)'. A statement to which Balang, another humorous character, responded in jest: 'Thata rra.'

Boitumelo's former colleague, Dennis Keagile, was devastated at the news of his death. 'I had a very interesting relationship with B2. Our relationship was interesting in the sense that we were friends and at the same time serious rivals. We were rivals in that he was working for Midweek Sun which was Mmegi's competitor.

We all wanted to write the best and well written stories and not just gossip. He had a column in which he was using a pseudo name and we at Mmegi felt that he was attacking us through that column.' Keagile noted that interestingly enough, B2 later joined Mmegi and they became good friends and even hatched a column called 'First Cut' together. However, B2 eventually stopped contributing to the column.

' He has done his best in contributing for sports reporting in Botswana. He was a great man,' concluded Keagile.

Boitumelo passed away on Wednesday morning after a short illness. May his soul rest in peace.