12 Dec 2024

Mr Baaitse Molapo reached 60 years of age on November 19.

“Dingwaga tsa gago di go kobile mo tirong?” I asked him. His response was in the affirmative.

He has gone home to Sheep Farm in the Good Hope District to manage an estate that was left by his parents when they died, including a 220-hectare land. 

His desire is to resuscitate the productivity that he saw on the land when he was a boy. 

When he was still in active duty, he bought a tractor through the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) and he is going to do the deed with it.

Mr Molapo’s parents left the estate that their three surviving children have decided not to divide among themselves.

“Yo o ikutlwang go lema hela o ka lema,” he said about himself, his elder brother Thuso and his younger sister Tebogo, meaning that whoever feels like tilling the land can do so. The two brothers have the tractor-operating skills.

Mr Molapo says he returned home to do farming, the activity that he grew up doing. 

He believes that with a tractor and the land, he can also add horticulture and dairy to the mix. And, with commodities such as hemp in the offing, there is little reason to go wrong.

The 60-year-old never married and has no children. His parents piled pressure on him to get married but he resisted. 

He insists, however, that he did not disobey. 

So, who will inherit the estate from him and his two siblings? 

One of his sisters died, leaving behind two children, who also have their own children. His brother also has a fiancée and children. 

Therefore the Molapo estate shall always have heirs.

Mr Molapo started school at Lesedi primary in Gaborone, went to Moeding College in 1979, Lesotho and then Canada in 1988. 

In Canada, he studied Print Journalism at the Niagara College and proceeded to the University of Windsor for a Communications degree. 

“What inspired you to become a journalist?” I asked him. 

He says his father used to buy newspapers such as the Rand Daily Mail of South Africa. 

After reading it and before throwing it away, it was the turn of the young Baaitse to read it. 

That was his inspiration, especially that he was also good with the English language.

His first ever article that saw the light of day, when he arrived in Gaborone from Canada, was in the Kutlwano magazine and was about the Kgalagadi Soap Industries. 

He recalled the marang soap that they used to produce. 

He then cut his journalism teeth at Kutlwano, churning out feature articles. 

Again, he had no recollection of his last published because he has been a sub-editor at the Botswana Press Agency (BOPA) for many years. 

However, he did not struggled to remember that it was in 1995 when Nelson Mandela came to Botswana.

Journalism has improved although you find that there is no stylebook. “Mongwe le mongwe o na le style sa gagwe,” he said, meaning that everyone has their own style.

Without a stylebook or without adherence to a stylebook, there is no consistency. 

He would have preferred to work with a manual of style. Once upon a time, there was verbal agreement to adopt the British English, but when you edit copy, you see a lot of American English.

He served the Department of Information Services as a bureau chief in Serowe, where he took over from the late David Matshediso when he retired. 

However, after three years, he was recalled to Gaborone where he was deployed to BOPA, later to DailyNews as its editor, then back to BOPA again as a sub-editor.

He is proud of his work. 

“My sick days are not more than five. Nne ke bereka. Le go tsena leiti, nne ke se motho le leiti.”

During his last days as a newsman, Mr Molapo said he could be in the office up to 6pm. 

He is one of the lucky few who was privileged to serve five presidents, Sir Ketumile Masire, Dr Festus Mogae, Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama, Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi and Advocate Duma Boko. 

During the reign of President Mogae, Mr Molapo was in the presidential press corp. Ends