27 Feb 2023

Stories of people who beat the odds in life are as heartwarming and mesmerising as they are inspiring and instructing.

Such is the story of one of Kgalagadi’s rising musicians-cum entrepreneur, Omphemetse Sephiri of Kolonkwaneng.

Diagnosed at 13, with tuberculous arthritis, an uncommon form of tuberculosis that eats away at joint tissues, leaving the sufferer an invalid, Sephiri has refused to let disability floor him in the boxing ring that is life.

He recalls that the illness that would eventually leave him wheelchair bound started off as a ‘mere’ stiff ankle.

He mistook it for one of those easy-come-easy-go cramps that often follow a lot of running around.

Little did Sephiri know that the pain would soon spread to the rest of his body joints, leaving them as stiff as a board, and tying him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

“I grew up a bright pupil.

Surprisingly the mysterious pain would start every time I went to school.

I was fine as long as I remained home,” he says.

He became a regular in hospital and soon he had accumulated more days in the hospital register that at school.

“They’d do physio, I’d feel better and go to school, but no sooner would I enter the school gate than the pain would come,” he says.

It always came with a vengeance, exacting emotional and physical usury.

When that happened he could not walk on account of both the pain and the stiffness of his limbs.

Mercifully, there were a few good Samaritans among his fellow learners and they would carry him, often piggybacking him to any place he needed to be within the school premises.

“Even in class, I could not seat for a long time and missed a lot of lessons,” he says.

His record of class attendance became so poor that when examination time came, teachers advised him against sitting the Junior Certificate School Leaving Examination.

 But his never-say-die attitude would not allow him to give in.

When the results came, he had scored and unbelievable B.

He was admitted at Matsha College.

His dream at the time was to be a social worker.

It got shattered in the second term as his condition worsened.

“I was hospitalised at Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone where I remained bed-bound for three years,’’ he says.

The non-movement was causing contracture of muscles in his body, including those of the neck, which left him looking like he is still on the bed.

Seeing he was not getting better, he asked the doctors to release him so he could find alternative treatment.

They agreed. He never came back to the hospital.

Back at home, he withdrew from the public. It was all too much for him.

“The whole thing of being carried about and being a burden to my family drained me,” says Sephiri. Then, one day, a pastor came visiting him.

His exhortation rekindled his never-say-die spirit.

He arose and started meeting people and attending functions.

And he made a vow that he would once and for all deal with his infirmity.

He would show people that disability was not an inability.

He went on a self-discovery journey during which he found hidden beneath the rubble of pain, uncertainty and fear, latent singing ability.

 He roused it and came charging at the Presidential Day Arts competitions in 2009, where he made quite an impression.

His confidence bolstered, he continued singing in functions, eventually registering a company, Twister Entertainment.

His big breakthrough came in 2017 when government approved his application for a P100 000 youth grant.

He used the money to buy an advanced sound system that he rents out for functions.

In fact, it was his sound system that was used at the 2018 Khawa Dune Challenge and Cultural Festival.

He ploughed the money back into the company, and is currently building an events stage that he will also rent out.

The idea is to make Twister Entertainment a one-stop shop, he says.

 With all the support he is receiving from government departments and locals who hire his equipment for weddings, church events and business meetings his company continues to grow.

 The company is doing so well that he has been able to extend by two rooms, the two-bedroomed house that the government built for him.

 And he is ever thankful to the government for its programmes that recognise people with disability.

“But I also continue to receive a lot of support from MYSC officers who‘ve been encouraging me, advising me to grow my business.

I am what I am because of the people around me.

They have built me. Now I only want to be a living example that disability is not inability,” says Sephiri.

 One day, he hopes, people will come from as far as Gaborone to buy merchandise from him as he plans to go into its production so the business can continue to make profit during a lull in the events calendar.

As we part, he looks, almost with awe at his instrument and lets out: “Life is much, much better now.

I am no longer a financial burden to my family.

In fact I also have something to place on the table; I am able to buy food and clothes and am not depending on my family for everything.”  ENDS