“The few herds of my cattle which you saw at Mamosarwane are the result of over ten years of hard work and colossal expenditure, and it is only now that I am beginning to see the results and even then, the stock I have is nowhere near in quality to what Chief Khama possessed. I calculate that it will take me at least another ten years of concentrated work to bring it to what it used to be.”
According to Diana Wylie in her book A Little God: The Twilight of Patriarchy in a Southern African Chiefdom, she states in clear terms that Tshekedi was a rich chief by all standard and measure. In 1949 he had in possession a herd of cattle numbering 2 500 and 2 000 goats. The statistician failed to account for horses and donkeys which of course are the backbone of any cattlepost that size. In fact I would suggest without hesitation that this amount of wealth was spread around several cattleposts. However, it is noted in the book that all this livestock was stationed at Mamosarwane, a single location. When using today’s rates and being as conservative as one can get, Tshekedi’s wealth was anything in the region of 120 million and 132 million pula. These figures would account for his immovable properties and money at local banks and those stashed in off-shore bank accounts. For Tshekedi, going to Cape Town or London was like visiting the neighbourhood. He was a man of good taste as he was the only one driving a red Jeep in the entire Ngwato territory.
