11 Feb 2014

Sometimes she would wake up hopeful for a huge end of business day cash, alas, that would be a mere wish.

At the end of business, she would literally have nothing to count, even a single thebe to show for her long labouring hours. Then in her inner self, old English saying, ‘if wishes were horses beggars would ride on them’, would keep coming up.

And unwillingly a sense of sorrow would engulf her. Nevertheless, she would eventually wake up to the realisation that she is not a beggar; it was just a wishful thinking, conceived out of the blues. In that state of mind, she would give thanks because she is neither a beggar nor a pauper.

That is the character of 26-year-old Ms Salome Motsomatshukudu of Mogobane, undoubtedly one of the few youth in the village who had decided to take the bull that is life by its horns.

“Operating a business is not that easy, sometimes a day will pass without making a thebe,” said Ms Motsomatshukudu during interview at her copy shop.

Interestingly, the copy shop was initially designed to offer internet connectivity to the usually quite small village, but it has been reduced to a mere copy-shop, due to unreliable internet connectivity.

Its only offers services such as photo copies, typing and printing, photos, selling t-shirts, simcards and computer lessons among others. But in the midst of this, Ms Motsomatshukudu is determined not to let to waste a business venture availed to her by cellular giants, Mascom Wireless under the Nteletsa Project.

This was a government rural telecommunications development programme aimed at providing communities with access to telecommunications services, which included voice, data and internet services.

And parallel to this project, service providers were to undertake a one stop ICT centre commonly known as Kitsong centres, to be mended by the community. In the case of Mogobane, Ms Motsomatsukudu became the lucky community member to run the centre donated by Mascom Wireless.

Like some of the youths idling up and down the village, Ms Motsomatshukudu’s only viable qualification is Botswana General Certificate of Secondary School Education (BCGCSE), but unlike the rest, the most worthy, she refuses to be counted among the unemployed and to be blaming someone else for her misfortunes whilst she is capable.

“Even if I can make P20 or P50 in a day, that would be something and to be honest with you I do not get good profit,” Ms Motsomatshukudu said. Already, to augment the little she makes, she has deployed a house to house marketing strategy to sell her services to community.

Although the strategy has not produced the desired, she is hopeful that with time the business will boom as the community realises the value of a copy shop. However, she has to start with addressing the slow internet connectivity affecting the sole shop in the whole of Mogobane village.

According to her, bringing internet to the unemployed yet tech-savvy Mogobane youth equals bringing tremendous opportunities. “Young people need internet, they are always asking about it,” she pointed.

Therefore, she wants to be the first to bring direct access to high technology to the residents, hence she has already approached the Youth Development Fund (YDF) to expand the business.

It is her conviction that if YDF would finance her, she would be at liberty to look for a service provider who will be able to connect the village. Another priority she said would be to increase the operation from the current two computers as well as to buy more stationary for the two year old business. ENDS