18 Jun 2024

She earns her keep behind the wheel of Puma Botswana into-plane refueling truck and has earned a position of first woman heavy duty operator in the petroleum and aviation space. 

Fourty-two-year-old, Ms Tebogo Ratsatsi of Mochudi, who has a mix of extra heavy duty, diamond cutting and polishing credentials, has defied the odds by becoming a trailblazer in an industry that has historically been male-dominated. 

Speaking in an interview with BOPA recently, Ms Ratsatsi said Puma Botswana is empowering marginalised Batswana by investing in and backing women in their aviation business, and she is one of the few. 

Upon arrival at Puma Botswana, she was trained on stock taking, a process that required her to determine how much fuel was left in storage tanks. 

Over and above this, she was also tasked with performing regular assessment on maintenance of all trucks, which included making sure interlocks brake well, as well as fueling aircraft. 

For quality control and check, she said she was trained on making sure that the product she dealt with was of good quality. 

Ms Ratsatsi said her journey with Puma Botswana fuelled and advanced her passion for farming. 

Born into a family of six children, Ms Ratsatsi, who is the last born to her dearly departed parents, has traits of a go-getter; someone who would dare to pursue diverse skills as long as a decent life is promised. 

Joining Puma Botswana in December 2016 was a dream come true for Ms Ratsatsi who had long wanted to be in the trucking field. 

A rather unnatural career path, she joined Puma Botswana transitioning from the diamond sector to the aviation space as a trainee trucker. 

The move followed three months of classes on heavy duty in 2015. 

When she joined the trucking space, she already had extra heavy duty, PrDP Hazardous, and PrDP Goods, which earned her a job as a trainee trucker. 

She said she was tired of her role as a diamond specialist and could not keep up with the intense security checks she was exposed to on a daily basis. 

Giggling,  she explained how she was not allowed her cellphone during working hours, and how also she could not go out for a quick lunch. 

Therefore, in 2015 and with her salary savings she enrolled for a health and safety course with Clearlite, where upon completion she took training in extra heavy duty. 

She said for a long time she had always desired to be in the trucking space, in particular, the extraction business, so she decided to have an honest conversation with herself and ultimately made the decision to leave the diamond sector.

For her academic journey, she informed this publication that she did her rudimentary studies at Segale Primary School in Mochudi from 1989-1995, following which she proceeded to Kgamanyane Junior Secondary from 1996-1998. 

Upon completing her form five at Molefi Senior Secondary in 2000, Ms Ratsatsi said she joined Mega Size College where she pursued a certificate in Book Keeping and Accountancy from 2001-2002. 

Ms Ratsatsi said upon completion, she could not immediately find a job, therefore, she used the skill learnt to assist her parents to run their supermarket and the farm they had at the time. 

She did this for at least six years and throughout she had an unwavering commitment to do everything to escape into a greener pasture. 

In 2008, and after years of searching for a decent occupation, an opportunity presented itself and it turned out to be a springboard career move. 

She joined Lazare Kaplan where she was quickly enrolled for training in diamond polishing and laser machine operation in Johannesburg, until 2009.

 With so much eagerness to become qualified in the diamond sector, she performed exceptionally well and was hired on a permanent basis with the same company in 2010 where she served for a good five years. 

“This job presented me with an opportunity to save part of my monthly earnings towards enrolling myself on yet another course. Though I didn’t know which course I was going to take next, I had a growing interest in learning something new,” she said. 

In 2014 and as part of broadening her spectrum in the diamond sector, Ms Ratsatsi said she got another opportunity with a company called Tache Diamond where she got to use her skill in laser operation. 

She was predominately doing diamond cutting, a highly specialised skill that required two years of intense training in Johannesburg. 

Ms Ratsatsi said she has been enjoying her eight-year’s work experience with Puma Botswana as the place has great team spirit and her male counterparts accepted her very well in her new role. 

She encouraged fellow women not to look down on themselves and urged them to know that the trucking occupation was a job like any other, indicating that what mattered was the love they approach the profession with. 

Ms Ratsatsi said with time she knows that she would eventually retire from this occupation. 

She said Puma Botswana had programmes in place to capacitate women to take up business opportunities in running fuel depots. 

She said already the Francistown fuel depot was successfully run by a woman who has been fully capacitated by Puma Botswana to carry the job. 

Ms Ratsatsi said through Project Maatlafatsa, Puma Botswana was committed to fostering citizen entrepreneurship in the energy sector by promoting local procurement and supplier development. Ends