13 Aug 2017

In Letlhakeng, there is a well told story of one Kablay Motseonageng, a successful businessman from the village who has never been to school.
The tale goes that one day he went to a motor dealership in Gaborone looking to buy a vehicle.

While walking around the showroom the salespersons did not give him much attention for he did not look like one that could afford even the cheapest of cars on display.

Finally he summoned one of them and enquired; “Ngwanaka, koloi ee ntebileng e ke bokae,” and staring at him was a top of the range Landrover Discovery!

The employee told him the price and he promised to come back soon. Within a few hours he was back as promised, with a brief case stacked with hard cash enough for the vehicle.

Shocked and highly suspicious, the salespersons refused to deal with him until he gave them contacts of his friend and homeboy, former government minister, Mr Boometswe

Mokgothu who assured the salespersons that the old man was prosperous enough to have such money, and that is when he was sold the vehicle.
When asked about the story, Mr Motseonageng laughs out loud before dismissing it. “That is not true, I can’t go around with hard cash that much,” he said.

The businessman is a well-known figure in Letlhakeng and surrounding areas and he is a living example of the phrase “self-made business man.”

Better known as “Besi Bee” (pronounced Busy Bee) after his shopping business complex, Mr Motseonageng together with his wife Kewagamang Motseonageng , run a string of successful businesses, including Saverite Supermarket, despite none of them having ever been to school.

Tracing their footsteps from the jaws of poverty, Mr Motseonageng said he was born at Metsibotlhoko near Letlhakeng almost seven decades ago.

“The following year in 1949 I relocated to Maboane with my parents where they had identified and requested a council borehole to use. That is where the family started rearing and farming before the area grew into a village, and that was when I also cut my teeth in leading a life of cattle herding and ploughing,” he said.

Mr Motseonageng said his two elder brothers had to leave him with his blind father to go and look for employment at South African mines, and that such a huge responsibility at a young age forced him to wise up fast.

He said in 1968 his brothers came back and it was now his turn to go to the mines, but said he was forced to come back in 1970 when his father died, only to find that the cattle he accumulated earlier had scattered because his brother who was tasked with looking after them was too ill.

“Because we were so poor, ladies did not give me a chance, so my uncle got worried at the prospect of me getting married, and in 1972 he went to nearby Sesung to look for a wife for me, and the following year I got married,” he said with a sly smile.

Mr Motseonageng said that in 1975 he relocated to Letlhakeng where his life started to change for the better. After initially struggling and earning a living through part time jobs, he made enough money to drill a borehole at a farm that was allocated his late brother.

A serious farmer that he is, he said he made enough money to buy his first tractor which was a sign of good things to come.

“That tractor is the one that turned my life around. I ploughed for people in the whole area and when ploughing ended I would have made good money, some paid in cattle and I managed to buy a second tractor and a second hand Ford 250 which I used to buy stock for my two kiosks I had opened at Nakalatlou cattle post. Farming blossomed and so did the kiosks,” he said.

Mr Motseonageng said his diversification into modern retail business started when one Liakat Kablay, now the area Member of Parliament for Letlhakeng-Lephepe approached me to buy his restaurant plot at Takatokwane.

“After a few uncertainties I agreed and he assisted me on how to go about procuring my first stock. Things were cheap by then and I remember I used P4 000 to buy my first stock and managed to fill a whole truck plus my ford 250,” he reminisces.

And because he never stopped ploughing, he said he later opened a butchery and slaughtered the cattle that people paid with, while he took the surplus to the cattle-post.

With years, he added other components and made a general dealer. Success in Takatokwane got his business adrenalin pumping and now he was thirsty for more business opportunities, which led him to seek more pastures in Letlhakeng, and as luck would have it, he encountered one Mmamokgatla who was being chased by creditors for failure to service her business loan.

He bought her small bakery and later added a butchery because he had realised its reward with his previous one, later adding a general dealer. With both Takatokwane and

Letlhakeng shopping complexes doing great, Mr Motseonageng said he diversified his empire further and started public transport plying the Gaborone-Hukuntsi route in 1989, then a two-days travel as the tarred road only went as far as Letlhakeng, with the rest of the about 450 km heavy sand.

“After plying different routes and ending up with about four buses, I tried to empower my employees and gave them full control of the transport business, but unfortunately they ran it to the ground, and I had to quit it as it was now a liability,” he said.

He said he left the business with pride though as he bought all the four buses without having to apply for any loan.
Villages along the route were rural, most residents had never seen a bus before such that when it passed, the whole village would line the road to watch it.

However, he still has a blot in his heart as he said that on official opening of the road after its tarring, the authorities did not even acknowledge him for having pioneered the route in its tough years.

With the money he got from the sales of the buses, he said he bought a farm where he transferred all his cattle, which he said at one point numbered around 2 000 before dividing some among his children.

He said because of pasture degradation, he also had to reduce the cattle to the current number of about 700.

Mr Motseonageng said that this year, he entered into partnership with Saverite to use their franchise after advice from Eureka Wholesalers whom he has been doing business with for a long time as he bought most of his stock there.

Having grown from a poor guy, Mr Motseonageng today boast of several investments, including a multi residential for rental in Letlhakeng and several others in Gaborone and Mogoditshane while he has since transferred other plots in the city to his children.

He said now he lives the life of a content man as his businesses keep on blossoming and his six children are educated, strong business minded people who are able to assist him with the modern aspects of business such as filing tax returns.

“I managed all this with the support of my wife,” he said.

Pondering the future, the wife, Kewagamang, who has also never entered the gates of school indicated that it is difficult to speculate what 10 years into the future holds for them, but said at the rate that things are going, they are hoping for the better.

She also indicated that the family is well known in assisting in community activities in Letlhakeng through donations.
In his parting shot, Mr Motseonageng advised that running a business is more rewarding than white collar jobs as its fruits never run out, provided it is taken seriously all the time.

“Botshelo ja Setswana bo tlhoka bopelo telele le maikaelelo,” he concluded.

Boasting a fleet of vehicles and tractors that were all bought without having to apply for a loan is a clear indication that Mr Motseonageng is a success story.

Even though it is not certain whether the story of him walking into a car dealership with a briefcase laden with hard cash ever happened, what is certain is that he is a self-made businessman who is currently living life to the content of his heart. ENDS