19 Oct 2015

Mr Keamogetswe Ketlogetswe, who is popularly known as Boy-boy in Gumare, believes that if one is filled with hope and expectancy, good things shall follow. 

Mr Ketlogetswe owns BopDot, a welding and fabrication business situated in Bothatogo ward in Gumare. The company was registered in 2013, but started operating in May last year.

Speaking in an interview recently, Mr Ketlogetswe’s life story is one littered with a fleet of hurdles.  “After failing my Form Three in 2004, I lost hope in life. 

I had nothing better to do with my time. I had no sense of direction nor fulfillment in life. Along the way, there was a ray of hope,” he noted.

His brothers had a welding business, which operated in their yard and out of curiosity, Mr Ketlogetswe started learning the ropes. 

Surprisingly, he discovered that he was actually good at welding and fabrication, noting that to weld was not an easy task, however, he realised he had a passion for the business.

After four years as an apprentice in his brothers’ workshop, he decided to do a Trade Test C course in Auto Mechanics at Okavango Brigade Development Trust in 2007.

Mr Ketlogetswe explained that auto mechanics was more in line with welding and fabrication, so he tested the waters and took a leap of faith and did the course.

The budding entrepreneur noted that while he was at brigade, he learnt a lot and he was applying those principles in his business today. 

He highlights that the school projects armed him with practicals, hence he gained first-hand experience in the process. 

The course also heightened and elevated his expectations of opening a welding and fabrication business.

A year later after finishing his schooling, Mr Ketlogetswe could not find a job, hence he volunteered in a local welding workshop in Gumare and the owner rewarded him with a little cash to keep him going. 

‘‘I opened my eyes and realized that a man has to do anything to earn a living. So bit by bit, I bought welding tools with my earnings. I bought tools such as a drilling machine, welding machine and a grinder,” he added.

In 2014, showers of blessings rained on him as he started his own welding and fabrication business. 

That was the year his company was born and he wanted to be independent and break away from the chains of poverty. 

The business makes different products such as donkey carts, sign boards, braai stands, sliding gates, bread ovens, palisade fencing and other custom-made products. 

It also offers maintenance of car exhausts and other car parts and the materials needed to make some of these end products include metal, mesh wires, pricks, paints and brushes.  

Mr Ketlogetswe clarified that his business is different from the rest in the area because clients place orders and he custom-makes merchandises for them according to their own preferences.

He explained that a relationship between a business owner and supplier is equally important, hence he has a reliable relationship with one particular supplier in the village where he purchases materials from him and pay later after clients had settled with him.

One loyal client, Ms Tiny Seidisa mentioned that Mr Ketlogetswe made her a beautiful custom-built glass table with aluminum stands encroached to it.

She explained that the service at the company is very excellent and virtually satisfactory and tourists from as far as Namibia come for car repairs and maintenance of their trailers in his business.

Mr Ketlogetswe elaborated that his business is doing fairly well and his earnings are usually about P3000 plus a month. 

He has hired a single worker who is also a welding professional to help in the running of his business.

In terms of challenges, the business man decried that lack of funds as well as having no workshop to operate from, which is heart-wrenching. Ends