29 Jun 2017

The nation of Botswana and the rest of the world mourn the passing-on of Sir Ketumile Masire, the second President of the Republic of Botswana.

In the same breath, we celebrate one of the finest global leaders that the African continent has ever produced.

People across all social divide; people of all colours and people of all ages are equally devastated by the loss.

To his country men and women, in him we found a friend, fellow farmer and a true father of the nation.

Our deepest condolences goes to the Masire family and the nation of Botswana.

It is a difficult time for Southern District Beef Farmers’ Association (SDBFA) to have lost one of its’ founding fathers, who continued to lead in our endeavour to promote self-reliance in food production in Botswana.

We have a lot to celebrate in that we all had a role model in him; a cattle farmer, a crop farmer and a horticultural farmer just to mention a few.

He lived an exemplary and principled life with defined classic guiding principles, which we all have a duty to pass from generation to generation.

Rre Ra-Gaone, as affectionately known, together with the association’s elders, have instilled on us; the spirit of volunteerism; they taught us life of sacrifice, self-reliance, collaboration and the value of giving back to the community.

They taught us that we are weak as individuals but united we are strong.

These principles are central to “Motswana’s” traditional value system.

They taught us to live by the idiom, “Moroto wa o esi ga o ele” (equates to Unity is Strength), which the motto for SDBFA.

Sir Ketumile Masire has fulfilled his natural obligation of developing, hand-holding and guiding generations. 

He has always given the SDBFA full support to excel in all its endeavours.

The onus now rests with us, to nurture and preserve his legacy, for the benefit of future generations.

SDBFA will remain forever thankful to have been blessed to have Sir Ketumile Masire as one of its founding fathers.  

Robala sentle “E khukhwa ee mangole a ditshipi,” tema ya gago o e weditse; o tlhagotse tsela; o sekao mo Batswaneng.

Re tla tswelela re ntsha dijo tse di lekanyeng; Batswana ga ba kitla ba wela mo isong re le teng.

You empowered and inspired the nation at large, to look into the future with confidence. ENDS