Philip Tlhage's day started quite ordinarily but ended in extra-ordinary fashion and a night in a cell. Like any other morning, the Botswana College of Agriculture (BCA) employee drove to Sebele Mall, walked into Pick 'n Pay Supermarket and picked up a few items, some light food for breakfast and The Monitor newspaper, Mmegi's sister publication. On the front page of the publication was President Ian Khama facing a cheetah. It had been a week of interesting engagements for newshounds and on that front page sat the fruits of that effort.
Intrigued Tlhage walks to the cashier, glancing at the paper. While at the till, he takes time to look at the front page properly and read the teaser. He learns that Khama had escaped a mauling from a cheetah at the Sir Seretse Khama Barracks. He says, casually:"E mo hositse, e kabo e mmolaile. E kabo e mo gontse matlho a". Like all simple mornings, people engage in chitchat, the cashier seeks to defend the President, happy that her favourite person escaped to tell the tale. The cashier defends the President's record but Tlhage holds a different view, that perhaps things could be better.
