The contribution of volunteers to this country
Wednesday, October 05, 2016
As was to be imagined, all of them had interesting recollections of that time, Tom recalling what a fine administrator David Maine had been at Molefi School and for him what a wonderful father figure he had been.
Unsurprisingly, too there was comment about the tennis at the Community Centre with both Tom and Sheldon, seen in this 1967 photo playing with Jimmy Moilwa, Levi Mfazi and a Gaborone based volunteer, Sam Caldwell. Today, that scenario is long gone, nothing being fixed in time. But because the `Peace Corps had to wait for Boipuso before it could make its contribution here, it was not too surprising that those first Mochudi PCVs should have found an 18-year- old British volunteer, Graham de Freitas, already teaching at Molefi and Johnny Gumb, printer extraordinaire, at the Community Centre. All, however, had been pre-dated by three British volunteers, amongst them, Patrick Kidner, who had been sent to this country by Alec Dickson in 1960. Dickson’s establishment of Voluntary Service Overseas was just one element in an explosion of creative, innovative thinking in England which was to have a major impact on this country, as well as on other newly- independent African states.
The recent disclosure by the IEC that 2,513 registrations have been turned down due to various irregularities should prompt all Batswana to meticulously review the voters' rolls and address concerns about rejected registrations.The disparities flagged by the IEC are troubling and emphasise the significance of rigorous voter registration processes.Out of the rejected registrations, 29 individuals were disqualified due to non-existent Omang...