10 Nov 2019

‘On this road you can crawl if you want, you can walk if you want, you can run if you want, you can fly if you want. I decided to fly….don’t wait for anyone to place those wings on you,” 

The strong transcendental phrase from First Lady Ms Neo Masisi was met with a deafening ovation from the good natured crowd at this year’s Women Summit at the fully packed Gaborone International Convention Centre (GICC). 

The brilliance and inspiration of Ms Masisi’s tale could be mistaken to narratives by renowned essayists and poets Henry Thoreau and Ralph Emmerson. Ms Masisi commanded the admiration of the crowd as she was responding to questions from CNN Business Africa Correspondent, Ms Eleni Giokos who conversed with the First Lady in a casual and relaxed dialogue about her life of purpose and her legacy.

“Being the First Lady you are handling hard issues in a soft manner. It helps to set the context, especially with our scenario here in Botswana, here is this lady who jumped out of Botswana 14 years ago, left her husband, worked at the UN and came back, so I’m a mystery First Lady!” she said.

Ms Masisi said her husband, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi whom she met in 1998 understood extremely well what his wife was made of. “We build each other as a couple” she told Giokos who wanted to understand how they complemented each other well despite different roles in their career paths. 

“When my husband told me he wanted to join politics, for me it was the automatic, to think this man would go on the ranks as far as politics takes him. When I told him I wanted an international job because I have dreamt it since high school, he knew already without me explaining that automatically I will leave the country. We hold discussions and we speak a similar language,” she said.

Quizzed on how she ignites positive ‘mosquito tendencies’ to her husband’s ear with regards to issues relating to gender equality, Ms Masisi said she made an attempt to drive him towards positive energy. 

“He has a big responsibility and I have to be careful what mosquitoeing I do!” she quipped.

“In terms of gender, he knows I mean business. He is one person who believes a woman or girl can do anything a man or boy can. So when I told him the path that I wanted career wise, it was very easy he never questioned,” she added.

Ms Masisi said she was a believer that women should be propelled into the fore. “I would like to say to women out there, believe it, visualise it and don’t apologise to anybody, venture into the unexplored areas, don’t make excuses. 

Lift other women up. It’s amazing what happens when you do that, you will be lifted even higher,” she said.

An accountant by trade, Ms Masisi has worked for leading organisations within the private sector in Botswana. 

Driven by her quest for international exposure, she embarked on a career as an international civil servant with the UN serving in three countries, the US, Ethiopia and the Central African Republic. 

Since 2018, she decided to shift her focus to support her husband and lend her voice to the advancement and empowerment of girls and rural women in Botswana. ends