allAfrica.com: Botswana: Tshabatau - a Pioneer Motswana Businessman (Page 1 of 2)

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.

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