04 Oct 2020

Ms Malebogo Masire is a ceiling breaker.

She became a woman of firsts at Botswana Prison Service and in the process breaking records since establishment of Botswana Prison Service in 1958.

Above all, she broke the glass ceiling to become the first female deputy commissioner. It was hitherto unheard of if not unchartered for a patriarchal society to witness a female deputy commissioner.

She hails from Mochudi and spent her entire life in Tlokweng.

Having enlisted in the service in 1980, she retired in January 31, 2014, exactly 33 years, six months and 21 days. She rose through the ranks and successfully discharged various assignments under the disciplined service.

Ms Masire, after resigning her employ as a social worker with South East District from 1978-79, joined prisons as a principal officer, an equivalent of an inspector.

She was not the first woman to join prisons and certainly not the last. She still gathers that she found a woman who was in charge of women’s prison in Gaborone who then was a top ranker.

Ms Masire would then set on a self-gratifying journey to become the first in every position she occupied as she ascended up the hierarchy.

Wind back from the deputy commissioner. December 01, 1984 saw Ms Masire set on historical journey when she was promoted to become the first ever female assistant superintendent.

She then notched another promotion up the ranks to a superintendent in October 1, 1986. Still the first female.

The journey of the firsts went unabated when on April 01, 1993 she was promoted to senior superintendent.

Five years later, Ms Masire’s flamboyant journey of firsts landed her to a cap of assistant commissioner in 1998.

In June 2000, prisons hierarchy put another link into Ms Masire’s chain to elongate her series of firsts to a senior assistant commissioner. It was in 2004 that she landed the top most position of her career as a deputy commissioner, a position she held until she retired from the disciplined force.

In her recollection, Ms Masire gathers that she ‘was the first and only woman to wear the first, green cap for officers until it was phased out.’ That was the time when the service donned only green, she gathers.

From August 2008 to April 2012, Ms Masire was seconded to SADC secretariat as a liaison officer for prison/correctional services. The task was to establish the then newly introduced correctional and prisons subcommittee and service commissioners’ meetings.

She was instrumental in establishing SADC women’s network, participated in the establishment of SADC and AU standby forces and advocated for a human rights approach to prison management inter alia.

Ms Masire was awarded with a Botswana Prison Service Distinguished service Award in May 2011. In May 2007 she was bestowed with Botswana Prison Service Jubilee Service Medal and a Botswana Prison Service Medal for Long service and Good Conduct in May 2000.

Upon retirement, she helped foster a retired prison officers association, 2015, where she is a deputy chairperson.

To have garnered so much in experience and success, Ms Masire reckons she had to do twice what men did just so that she could fit in a previously male domain. That she describes as ‘a pleasure and a challenge.’

However, she hastens to clear that she never had problems working with men. She recollects that they respected her.

As she broke the ceiling in her ascendance, Ms Masire left her foot prints for other women to track as they seek to demystify the beliefs that disciplined forces were not restrictively a men’s domain.

Following her retirement, Ms Masire was replaced by another woman in Ms Tebelelo Moabi. Ms Moabi served as a deputy commissioner together with Edna Balang for the two posts of deputy commissioners.

Ms Masire advises that any woman could ascend similarly, provided they became brave enough, worked hard and strived for excellence in everything they set their sights on.

“It is very interesting to work with human beings,” she says while steering free from labeling prisoners as such.

However, the retired deputy commissioner admits that the service was not an entirely smooth sailing for her especially that she had a family to tend to, academic journey to pursue, the job to do inter alia.

Although she left a trail of successes in her voyage as a prison officer, a first woman to wear a plethora of badges which were then a no go area for women, she remained humble in a male dominated ascendancy.

She joined prisons at a time when the service was undergoing transformation from just security to introducing and intensifying rehabilitation. This is where her expertise and those of others found habitat.

Ms Masire, like any child growing up at the time, yearned for the traditional jobs like nursing and teaching amongst others. In fact, she shares that both of her parents exerted some influence to push her towards becoming a teacher.

It was what they wished for all their six children, she recalls.

A mother of two, Ms Masire boasts a certificate in social work (Botswana Agricultural College), Diploma in social and community development, bachelor of social work, master in social work (University of Botswana). ENDS