24 Feb 2022

Like all high school pupils, Mr Gaolathe Gomosie gave his all to secure a place in tertiary institutions to study a good course that would enable him get a good job.

In most instances excelling pupils eye certain white collar jobs.

While sweating for his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Botswana, it never occurred to him that one day he will be dealing with tyres.

Upon completion in 2005, he joined Water Utilities Corporation where he worked only for nine months.

In 2006, Mr Gomosie went to Botswana Railways attached as a mechanical engineer. Whilst at Railways, he met his friends from training at the Botswana Defence Force camp in Paje.

“I found their uniforms appealing and gave it a thought. In 2007, I joined the army and had a short stay, as I left in 2019.  I realised that with the army, you cannot do side hassles and the long trips that go up to three months could not help.”

Then one day in 2019 while on an outing, by coincidence Mr Gomosie met Otraco recruiters and became interested in what they were doing.

He ditched his job and joined, immediately. After joining them, he went to study Tyre Management and Tyre fitness in Australia.

Determined as he was, he completed the course in 2011 and came back to Otraco when they were setting up at Majwe Mining Joint Venture in Jwaneng.

He worked for the company for six years and joined Majwe Mining. Mr Gomosie, who always scouts for a challenging environment, had a brief stay at Majwe and left in 2020.

His departure at Majwe was the beginning of his journey in the tyre management industry as he partnered with his former colleague from Otraco, Mr Emmanuel Bhuka.

Just as Mr Gomosie, Mr Bhuka never thought of tyres during his tertiary days.

He studied business management through the company that was engaged by Debswana to provide tyre management services.

Mr Bhuka left Otraco in 2014 to persue personal interests and established a business, which had always been their plan with Mr Gomosie.

He established a welding, fabrication, labour hire, tyre supplies and rim accessories among others.

The year 2016 saw the formation of a company called Rivoliyer Holdings owned by the two.

They registered into Debswana vendor list and tendered for a project to do tyre management and repair services for Orapa Letlhakane and Damtshaa Mines.

To their surprise they won the tender in 2019, their company formation came at the right time when Debswana was promoting a programme dubbed Citizen Economic Empowerment Programme (CEEP).

They were awarded the tender in July 2020 and began works at the company in September 2020.

The business was self-financed from its initial set-up and they acquired mobilising funds from Debswana.
 

The funds were not adequate enough to cover their total expenses as they had to procure vehicles for use in the mine. They acquired funding through facilitation by Debswana which was worth P4m from ABSA Bank in September 2020.

The duo managed to repay 80 per cent bulk of the money between October 2020 and January 2021 as the loan was deemed short loan.

The company has employed 36 people based at Orapa mine and seven at Letlhakane office.

They acquired a plot in Letlhakane two years back and they are carrying out some developments on it.  Ends