24 Mar 2025

Two rusty padlocks hang loosely from a chain, clinging stubbornly to a wire-meshed gate. 

Beyond it, forlorn buildings stand in eerie silence, once vandalised, now refurbished, yet waiting for life to return.

A lone security guard keeps watch, the only sign of movement in a space meant to be a thriving vocational training centre for the Bokaa community. The rusted locks tell a deeper story, one of dreams left in limbo, barred by time and circumstance.

Rewind to 2013. Mmaose Seloba would send her teenage daughter through these very gates, then known as Omang, with nothing but a mother’s hope and a child’s unyielding ambition. Thapelo Mokgethi, having stumbled in her Form Five examinations, had a vision that needed no grades to validate. She wanted to learn the art of sewing.

Seloba, speaking with the warmth of a mother’s pride, recalls how she scraped by through subsistence farming, yet never hesitated to fuel her daughter’s aspirations. “Thapelo ke senatla. Fa a batla selo, ga gona se se ka mo emisang...” (Thapelo is a hard worker. When she sets her mind on something, nothing can stop her), she says, her face lighting up with admiration.

True to her mother’s words, Mokgethi's journey was never one of hesitation. After just four months at Omang, she outgrew the environment and sought more, enrolling at Gaborone Technical College (GTC), then later, Limkokwing University, where she earned an Associate Degree in Textile Design. The hunger to master her craft was insatiable.

On Saturday, Mokgethi marked a decade in the fashion industry, not with grand speeches but with action, curating a breathtaking spring fashion show in Rasesa. Clad in an exquisite ensemble of her own creation, she did not retreat to the comfort of a top-table seat. Instead, she glided through the event with precision, making sure every thread of the evening aligned with her vision.

Now the proud founder of Seloba Creations, Mokgethi’s passion for fashion traces back to childhood where she found magic in the hum of an idle sewing machine at home. While her peers busied themselves with traditional games, she meticulously stitched tiny outfits for dolls, an early rehearsal for the masterpieces she now crafts.

Her brand’s name, Seloba Creations, was born out of inspiration from Forester Creations, the iconic fashion house in The Bold and the Beautiful. The soap opera, though deemed too romantic for her young eyes, was a secret indulgence she enjoyed thanks to lenient parents. It was a seed planted unknowingly as she sat, wide-eyed, soaking in the glamour of high fashion from a television screen.

The journey from childhood curiosity to industry acclaim was not without hurdles. Seloba recalls how her daughter started from scratch, running the business from home before upgrading to the family garage. “She was so young, I had to sign the youth funding documents on her behalf,” her mother reminisces.

Today, Mokgethi’s name graces the corridors of Botswana’s fashion scene and beyond. As part of the pioneering cohort of Creation Botswana’s mentorship programme, she is on the cusp of fulfilling a dream, owning boutiques and fabric stores across the country.

Her designs have adorned some of Botswana’s finest, from reigning Miss World Africa, Lesego Chombo to former Miss Botswana, Palesa Molefe and the elegant Mrs Botswana, Portia Makgatong. On the global stage, she has waved the country’s flag high, representing Botswana at the international African textiles conference, SITA Djibouti in 2020 and Togo in 2021. By the end of that year, her contributions to the industry earned her the Botswana National Youth Council’s Fashion Personality Award. In 2023, she made her debut at the Glitz Awards—and won, cementing her place among Africa’s finest designers.This year, Mokgethi’s anniversary collection bursts into life with spring-inspired hues - vivid, elegant and effortlessly modern. She describes her work as a personal dialogue between fabric, colour and imagination, tailored to individual preferences of size, tone and style.

“I realise that every season brings a change in colour and fashion trends. I learn something new every day, from YouTube to TikTok,” she shares, her creative fire undimmed by time.

Despite the glamour, she acknowledges the challenges, chief among them, operating space. Currently working from an incubator under the Local Enterprise Authority in Pilane, she employs one tailor but dreams of expanding her business into a fully-fledged atelier.

Balancing a demanding business with personal life is no small feat, yet Mokgethi navigates it with the same precision she applies to fabric and thread. Time is her most valuable material, and she stitches every moment into the pursuit of excellence.

Her message to young designers is simple yet profound: A woman with a sewing machine holds the power to shape her own destiny. And with the world’s support, she believes, dreams need not remain locked behind rusted gates. ENDS