Gasebalwe Seretse
27 June 2008
Gaborone — If there is one self-made man it is Mathambo Tshabatau of Boikago Ward in Palapye. Born 72 years ago in the village of Gweta, Tshabatau fought against all odds to be one of the leading businessmen in a village hundreds of kilometres away from his place of origin.
As if that is not enough he wrestled with hostile dikgosi to found an apostolic church during the colonial times. The old man, with a sharp mind and darting eyes says that he is a Kalanga from the Mabitsa ward in Gweta and his totem is a crocodile. He started his primary education in the village when he was 17 years old.
"You must remember that back then, it was commonplace to find people starting their primary school in their late teens or early twenties," old Tshabatau asserts. He adds that in those times some young men would go and work in the South African mines and then come back years later to start schooling.
After a couple of years in Gweta, he went to finish his primary education in Mmadinare where he studied up to Standard 6. Tshabatau explains that back then successfully completing Standard 6 was considered a great achievement and those who completed it were said to be educated.
"Upon completing my Standard 6, I decided that I should start earning a living for myself so I left my home village to go to Palapye in search of work. In the past, children had to work hard so as to support their families unlike children of today who want their parents to do everything for them while they laze about doing nothing," says the old man.
Old Tshabatau was fortunate to find a job as a clerk with R A Bailey stores in 1959. The job of a clerk was reserved for the educated and he earned the enviable salary of £ 1.10 (P11.33). In 1962, he was promoted to manage the bottle-store at Palapye Hotel and by then he was earning £ 2.00.
"As soon as I started getting my salary, I bought a few cattle and established my first cattle-post," says Tshabatau. As a manager, he earned the lucrative salary of £ 5.00 (P20.60) and invested the money in his cattle-post, buying more cattle. In 1974, the manager of the Palapye Hotel, a certain Finlay left for South Africa and the owner, Bailey realizing the business acumen in Tshabatau decided to promote him to be the new hotel manager and his salary was increased to P 70, which was a lot of money back then.
According to the old man, with the salary that he earned as a hotel manager, he was able to feed his extended family, buy more cattle and still have enough money to save.
Although he was happy with his progression at work, the whites, who were the only people allowed by the colonial administration to drink in public places were not impressed with having a black man managing the hotel.
"Sometimes I would have nasty characters expressing their disgust at being attended to by a black man but I always chose to ignore them and performed my duties to the best of my ability," Tshabatau says with a tinge of sadness.
Five years down the line, the enterprising Tshabatau realized that he knew everything that he needed to make him a successful businessman so he quit his job at Palapye Hotel and started Kansas City Small General Dealers and Butchery with the savings that he had made over the years. The shop sold anything from textiles to food.
"If there was anything sellable you would most certainly find it in my shop. We, as pioneer Batswana businessmen, did not have much competition except from the whites who were few and our businesses were doing well," the old man fondly recalls.
During those days, his Batswana contemporaries were the likes of Gaontebale Nwako and Otaata Shashane. Fellow Batswana like Isaac Serumula and Ontiretse Mofswane later joined them.
Tshabatau remembers that back in the day, business was lucrative and with the profit that he made, he was able to buy a fleet of cars and build himself a comfortable home in Boikago ward.
The old man laments that in the 90's big South African retails stores and supermarkets like Pep, Cash Bazaar, Spar and Score started engulfing small general dealers and in 1998, he decided to quit operating his business. Today, he is renting out his building to Maxi Save.
Nowadays, Tshabatau divides his time between his cattle-post and Palapye where he is the archbishop of the St. Patmos Apostolic Church, which he founded in 1960.
Being a founder of an apostolic church has not been an easy sailing for the elderly man.
"There was no freedom of religion during the colonial era and my efforts to start an apostolic church were brutally resisted by the dikgosi of the time," recalls the aging patriarch.
Tshabatau said that back then, the only churches that were allowed in the country were mainline churches more-especially 'Khama's church' the London Missionary Society.
"My church was founded against a backdrop of torture that is why it is called Patmos, the Greek island where the Apostle Paul suffered untold humiliation and persecution," recalls the old man.
Tshabatau says that despite persecutions, the church thrived and in the process, he was able to open branches in Maun, Gweta, Francistown, Mogapi, Tsetsejwe, Mahalapye, Lerala and South Africa. The headquarters of the St Patmos Apostolic Church were built in Palapye in 1975. The church currently has three bishops (sadly, the fourth recently passed away) and one pastor in each branch.
The archbishop says that with the coming of independence, churches were granted more freedom and he gives the first president of Botswana Sir Seretse Khama credit for having introduced democracy in the land.
The old man says that in the past his church thrived but nowadays, with the advent of what he calls 'casino churches', the membership has remarkably declined.
"These fly-by-night churches come promising people heaven on earth and they steal members from our churches," laments the old archbishop who says his church is left with slightly over a thousand members.
Asked if he is against Christians being rich, Tshabatau quips, " It is okay for Christians to be rich but it is wrong for these pastors to enrich themselves by making people buy blessings from God."
Unlike most of his generation, Tshabatau asserts that he is happy with the current democratic government pointing out that during the colonial era, dikgosi were autocratic. He says that in the past it was not easy to challenge a decision made by a kgosi while today people are free to do so.
If he is in Palapye, the former businessman spends most of his time either reading religious literature or meditating. He, together with his wife Onkemetse Tshabatau have been blessed with five children namely Naomi, Dorcus, Mmelegi, Manoah and Thatayaone who are all grown-ups. Interestingly, he derived the names of his children Naomi, Dorcus and Manoah from the Bible and he confesses that the Holy Book inspired even the Setswana names.
Old Tshabatau says he can proudly look back because he has done his best and that it is up to those who have come after him to do the rest.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Mmegi/The Reporter. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
