A personal memoir of Patrick van Rensburg
Friday, June 02, 2017

Van Rensburg
I found him with a pick in his hand. Pat was in hurry to finish the foundation trenches for a new science lab. He swung the pick furiously at the red soil and soft rock below him. “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” he panted, “but of course I wasn’t the foreman on that job.”
Pat was physically big and radiated charisma. He was driven by both long-term vision and here-and-now compassion. Lord how he worked! Students, brigade trainees, and volunteer staff — like myself — easily accepted his leadership.
We duly congratulate them to have ousted the long ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) from power. Prior to taking power from the BDP, the coalition had made several election promises that are credited for influencing change and swaying the people to vote in its favour.The party had made an undertaking, which its leader and President Duma Boko consistently bellowed in his campaign trail. These undertakings were promises that Batswana would be...