Zambia World Wide

E) First telephone in Letlakane

I installed the first telephone in Letlakane making use of a radio link from Orapa.

F) First registered dairy

I was the first person to register a dairy in the Francistown jurisdiction. When I asked Cyril Challis the Senior Dairy Officer what I was required to do to meet the health requirements he thought I was joking as they could not enforce the rules. All the locals were selling their milk out in the bush. However after meeting with the necessary requirements to my dairy I requested Cyril to carry out his inspection. The dairy was accepted on 11-2-1970. When Cyril had to issue me with the registration certificate we spent sometime turning his office upside down looking for the book.

President Sir Seretse Khama

On the few occasions that I had some contact with Sir Seretse Khami it was obvious that he had a great love for cattle and the outdoors.

Sir Seretse Khama owned a farm just outside Francistown. When he visited this farm I had to transfer the other telephone subscribers from the farm line that served his farm to a second farm line. This required making some adjustments and modifications to the second farm line to compensate for the additional phones as ten phones per farm line was the norm. This gave the President not only privacy and sole use of the line but he would not be disturbed with the continues ringing on the line.

With my first visit to the farm I visualized a farm house with all the luxuries. To my surprise the house needed attention. The furniture was very basic and the kitchen was equipped with an anthracite stove. His bed was an old metal frame. In front of his bed was an old Kudo skin on the cement floor. I certainly would not swap my bed with his after trying it out. After speaking with the labourer who looked after the farm it was clear that Sir Seretse Khama was the happiest when he was close to his cattle and I quote “As hy die beeste sien dan is hy baie bly” (When he sees the cattle he is very happy). I still have a sjambok made of giraffe skin which his labourer gave me.

To get away from the hustle and bustle he would spend sometime in the guest house in the Chobe Game Reserve. At the time the South Africans were patrolling the Zambezi and Chobe Rivers. While he was at the guest house they would stay clear of the Chobe on his request. His time was spent listening to the wild life and birds around him. With his visits to the Chobe Safari Lodge the security guards were ambiguous with their absence.

When he was not so well he relied on Doctor Pearl Mashalaba. She and her husband Dr Simon Moeti both practiced at the government hospital in Francistown.

Every year with Botswana’s independence I received an invitation to attend a dinner in Gaberones