In his book, Mamelodi, commonly referred to as Dumba, regals his stories about the happenings within and without the football corridors of power in Botswana from the late 1980s to the time when he was appointed to FIFA as one of the 12 FIFA Goal Development Officers for the region. He was the acting Secretary-General of the Botswana Football Association (BFA) in 1989, then full-time Secretary-General from 1991-2000. Mamelodi has been enjoying an enviable marriage life since 1990 to date. He and his beautiful wife, Koketso Prudence Mauco, tied the knot in a little village called Dinatshana in the Barolong Farms on August 18, 1990. The marriage was celebrated at the St Theresa’s Roman Catholic Church in Lobatse. The place where the marriage was celebrated is special to me. I was born and bred in Lobatse. My father was a Catechist in the Roman Catholic Church, and thus, we lived at St Theresa’s Catholic Mission, where St Theresa’s Primary School and the church are situated.
The church is basically the same premises, and the church building was just a stone's throw away from the house we used to live in. Mamelodi’s wedding mass was presided over by the Right Reverend Bishop Boniface Tshosa Setlalekgosi (MHSRIP) which, on its own, was a privilege for him and his wife. His Excellency the Bishop had to travel about 70km from Gaborone to the small town of Lobatse, and so the couple was honoured to have the leader of the church in Botswana preside. At the time, I must have been doing one of three things: either attending studies at the nearby Ipelegeng Community Junior Secondary School where I was a student, visiting my grandparents with my siblings at the Sakutswane Lands a few kilometres southwest of Otse village, or serving in the same holy mass as an altar boy. I just can’t remember. It is decades ago, and I served as an altar boy in many weddings during that period, so it is impossible for me to remember. What is clear is that there is a good probability that I attended his wedding as an altar boy. In his book, Mamelodi tells us how it all started. It was difficult and treacherous. He embarked on a worthy mission to bring organised football to the people of Botswana, particularly in far-flung places. “I often recall my first adventure to prepare for organised football. I was travelling with the late Peter Nthite by road from Francistown to Tsabong. The road to Tsabong was treacherous, one gigantic pothole, pregnant with a million other potholes, made the five-hour trip feel like one of those massage chairs in airport lounges, except more violent. Little wonder that, on our first trip, my Nissan Sedan suffered two punctures. One also had to be diligent to avoid herds of cows and antelope which would wander across the road without care,” he writes.
