03 Nov 2021

Now that is an authentic man of the people: Mr Richard Charles Eaton, long-time councillor for Ghanzi North West Farms (now Qabo) donated his entire salary to the poor.

Not for one day. Not for a month, nor for a year, but for a howling 38 years. The now 97-year old Mr Eaton was the first Ghanzi District Council chairman immediately after independence in 1966 and served in the local authority until 2004.

His only absence from the council was for one term from 1969-1974 after he was nominated Specially Elected Member of Parliament by former president Sir Seretse Khama.

He is also the person who surveyed the Ghanzi District and township.

Mr Eaton explained he donated his salary because wherever he looked in the district; there were too many destitute people. While he was alive to the fact his salary could not change everyone’s life, he could go to bed happy that he had at least affected one life positively.

He paid the money into a Remote Area Dweller fund. “Many people were able to get assistance through the fund. I remember that we also built two houses for people who really needed them with some of the money.

The motivation behind giving my money was to assist because I could see that many people were struggling.

Ghanzi was probably the poorest district in the country,” he says. Born on 9 March 1924 in Victoria West, South Africa, Mr Eaton served in the South Africa Air force in North Africa and South Europe during World War II, but returned home after getting injured in a plane crash.

He studied surveying at the University of Cape Town, and later became a partner in Tereblanche and Eaton firm, under which he came to then Bechuanaland to do surveying work in the Ghanzi area. “They wanted to survey the Ghanzi farms, which had been given out in 1886. But no one wanted to come here because the area was too remote.

I said I would do the survey and I came in 1955. I loved the country so I stayed here when I finished surveying and applied for this farm,” the father of three said from his farm in Ghanzi. His three sons are all fairly successful. Peter is a specialist doctor, Brian a lawyer, and Clive a farmer. He never was truly a politician at heart, but his his close friend and former president Sir Ketumile Masire persuaded him.

“I was elected council chairman for Ghanzi District Council immediately after independence in 1966. At the next sitting of Parliament in 1969 Seretse asked me to come to Parliament as a specially elected member,” he says.

He was in the second Parliament among Botswana’s great politicians including Sir Seretse himself, Sir Ketumile, Mr Phillip Matante, Mr Motsamai Mpho, Mr Obed Chilume, Mr Kebatlamang Morake, Dr Kenneth Koma, Mr Daniel Kwelagobe and Mr Wellington Seboni.

“At the end of that term I didn’t like living in Gaborone which was one thing. Another thing was that my wife was not very well so I told Seretse that I didn’t want to continue in Parliament and he asked me if I would like to go back to council.

So I returned to council straight after the next elections (1974) and I was re-elected every time as councillor for the North West Farms (now Qabo ward) until I was 84 years old. I was getting too old and I didn’t stand again (in 2004).

So, I was in government from independence until 2004. I didn’t touch all my salary and claims (allowances), and paid all of it into the RADS fund,” he says.

His generosity also saw him donating also some of his gratuity to the Ghanzi District Show! Mr Eaton says the district had no developments at independence and he worked hard with other councillors and then District Commissioner, Mr Simon Gillet to develop infrastructure.

At the time the district was linked by a few tracks between the farms, sand paths to Maun, and a sand road to Lobatse. “Gillet had wanted me t survey and lay out the Ghanzi Township, which I did”.

His son Clive, points that Ghanzi is one of the few townships in Botswana that were well planned from the scratch thanks to the good job done by his father. “He was in the township planning board, and you can see that Ghanzi is well structured,” he says. Mr Eaton also served for a long time in the council’s finance committee.

Then, the council worked as a team and there were no political party divisions. “If the opposition brought something good we supported them and vice versa,” he says. “The best development that happened because of our council was, education and construction of the road to Lobatse. “First it was education.

Mr Henry Jankie (former MP of Ghanzi and minister of Communications) and I approached government and asked for a tar road between Ghanzi and Lobatse, which the government eventually granted,” he says Mr Eaton also served on the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) Board for seventeen years in the 1980s and 1990s.

The President recognised his exceptional service to the nation and generosity and in 1980 bestowed upon him the Presidential Order of Meritorious Service.

Then in 2008, he was awarded the Presidential Order of Honour in recognition of his efficient and devoted service to Botswana. ENDS