Reflections on Dorcas Makgato
Three weeks prior to her departure to Australia, I called Dorcas Makgato. She was surprised to hear from me. Of course, she knows that I love her. And I have no qualms in admitting that I missed her. She had not heard from me for years. And after she lost her MP seat, I wasn’t one of the many who flooded her mobile phone with sympathy calls and unsolicited short messages of commiseration. I was not happy that she had lost. Neither was I sad. I knew that contrary to what a few people thought, her world was just taking a fresh turn. In my view, having had the pleasure of working so closely with her, it would take a profound dearth of imagination for anyone to think that her world was coming to a grinding halt. And yet that is what some clowns gloated about!
There are eventualities that are not tied to anyone’s whims or mishaps, such as the fact that the sun will rise early tomorrow morning and set in the evening. In the same vein, I was sure that Dorcas would be back on her feet in no time. That would never depend on anyone’s whims or glaring wish for misfortune. Owing to her character, a larger than life personality that always bubbles with boundless energy and eternal optimism, I knew that she would never be drawn into wasting time frivolously wallowing in a bottomless pit of self-pity.
She was not about to descend into anxiety or severe bouts of depression. And she was not going to saturate her emotions with incessant sadness. Oh no! That is the preserve of despair prone weaklings. Not the constantly hopeful Dorcas’ of this world who are always keen to brave up to challenging situations and unapologetically chart a rewarding path for themselves. I expected her to own her challenges and swiftly overturn them into opportunities. Did she manage to do that? Let me leave that to your sense of discernment, and hopefully unbiased judgement. But how you respond to this question would to a large degree reveal your underlying personality. Whether by nature you are a positive soul or a cynical prig.
Just a week ago, I had a bit of time to kill. Like many often do, I fell victim to surfing the net. And I chanced across a video that I found hard to resist watching. It was a short speech delivered by Nelson Mandela in the late 1990s in support of William Jefferson Clinton during the time he was accused of some morally questionable indiscretion with a White House intern. In his humorous style, Mandela told the Americans gathered in a small room in the White House that he did not like interfering in domestic affairs of other nations, but he strongly felt that Clinton should not be impeached. Thereafter, he said something that is now indelibly etched in my memory. That if Clinton was to be impeached, he had to remember that “the greatest glory in living lies not on falling but on rising every time you fall”. So, when Dorcas lost elections, there wasn’t a single ounce of doubt in me that she would find it within herself to marshal her strength and channel it into positivity for her own good.
Of course, I digress. Back to the call. She accepted my call in her normal jolly way and reminded me that I was only calling her because of her new appointment. I was surprised that she accepted my call, and that she still had my number after so many years. Not one to beat about the bush, in less than two minutes, I had made known to her the purpose of my call. And wait for it! To write her biography! Well, I just thought it would make an interesting read. And I still think so.
Dorcas is one who does not beat about the bush either. People who have worked closely with her are familiar with her catchphrase, “What’s the bottom line?” She always passionately resisted listening to unnecessary granular details. She was never interested in long stories. Only in the bottom line. This is the lesson that her staff at Botswana Export Development and Investment Authority (BEDIA), including yours truly, learned all too quickly after she ascended to the helm of the organisation.
In response to my offer, she said, “I have actually thought about that. Are you the one who used to write good English at BEDIA?” Now, I had two options. One; to modestly deflect attention from myself, or two; to dive to the not-so-modest end of humility’s spectrum and say, ‘of course it’s me, your brains are still very sharp Chief!’ Chief? That’s what we called her. Mainly driven by affection, and partly by her position at BEDIA. As to my response to her question, let me leave that to your imagination.
Upon winding our short telephone conversation, I said, “Let me know when you are ready.” I haven’t heard from her since then. Barely two days after our telephone conversation, I saw a picture of Chief on Facebook heartily enjoying a good meal at a restaurant with a well known local journalist. I wasn’t enthused at all. My imagination immediately ran wild. I just allowed it to run amok, deliberately unwilling to leash it. I wondered whether she was now discussing my idea with the guy!
When I worked with Dorcas, I was impressed by several of her enchanting attributes. Her eloquence really stood out for me. And I am not referring to written speeches. The gloss and shine of her eloquence always came to the fore in extemporaneous delivery of her speeches. And this never compromised her warmth, her enthusiasm and her ability to reason in a logical and coherent manner.
Some of us who are beneficiaries of public education are gifted in writing English, but often find ourselves hit by frequent moments of inertia when we have to speak the language. Fishing for words is often the norm, and our speech is often punctuated by stuttering and indeliberate use of interjections such as a series of the boringly stretched ‘Ums and Ems’. In many instances, this glaring lack of fluency is attributable to a phenomenon called temporary retrieval failure. This is associated with failure to retrieve some words safely stowed away in some space in our brain. At such times, we would be frustrated as our efforts to retrieve appropriate words are hit by a melancholic and terse ‘access denied’.
Interestingly, this phenomenon was totally alien to Chief. In all forums where I have had the joy of listening to her, I was always impressed by her confidence, her poise, her visceral conviction and the utterly unapologetic way in which she articulated her views so persuasively and lucidly as one endowed with authoritative clout. In my view, it was always clear that she did not do this in a desperate attempt to fish for compliments. No! She recognised that lives were at stake, and it was crucial for her to lead from the front in her effort to attract FDI into the country and hopefully create sustainable job opportunities for Batswana. And she did a fantastic job!
On a number of occasions when she has had the privilege of representing Botswana abroad as the CEO of BEDIA, she would be in her element as she comfortably cruised through unbelievably compelling and powerful presentations. Breathing just the right emotion into her presentations and
easily grabbing the attention of her audience!
Apart from her eloquence, I was also impressed by her punctuality. She was always punctual for management meetings. This quality seemed to have been hardwired into her persona enabling her to easily shatter the glass ceiling of the clichéd phrase, ‘A boss is never late but is delayed’. Soon after joining BEDIA, the rest of the management team emulated her and enthusiastically cascaded the same enduring principle to their direct reports.
I also liked the fact that she took personal responsibility for all that happened at BEDIA. She thoroughly prepared for all board meetings and ensured that the quality of the content of board packs could not be faulted. On a few occasions, I had to travel with her on business trips. Invariably that would happen at a time pretty close to the deadline for dispatching board packs. I would work throughout the night either writing or editing some of the board submissions. In her collegial manner, she would just say, “I am going to abuse you.” And every time she said that I would brace myself for hard work knowing full well that sleep deprivation was beckoning. But I was quite happy to work with her and for her. And I want to believe that the same applied to many of my colleagues. The beauty of all this is that she was never stingy with deserved plaudits, unlike some unappreciative bosses with a hardened demeanour that never allows them to utter a single word of gratitude to the staff.
I vividly remember the one day a visibly frustrated colleague came to see me. She was a bit distraught that the paper she had written for the board was rejected by Chief, not really because of the content but because the quality of the English language was just not up to scratch. She wanted me to help her ‘panel beat’ a few phrases, but I was quite busy. This was on a Friday. She took the paper home and worked on it during the weekend. On Monday she presented it to Dorcas. After reading the paper, with a glaring sense of heartfelt gratitude, the visibly happy CEO showered her with praise. Expressing gratitude is something that she did so effortlessly, almost like it was second nature to her.
Dorcas was quite choosy about her battles, and she would always shy away from fighting battles that she knew she couldn’t win. A case in point is when BEDIA came up with what they perceived to be a stellar tagline for branding the country; ‘peace and tranquillity beckon’.
At the time, the view held was that these two qualities that were in short supply in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa gave Botswana an edge in attracting Foreign Direct Investment. Of course, there was nothing wrong with this tagline.
However, two words failed to resonate with Batswana; ‘tranquillity’ and ‘beckon,’ with some derisively saying they failed to appreciate David Beckham’s role in branding Botswana. Chief discerned that this was not a battle she could win, and instead of digging her heels in, she wisely led Team BEDIA in giving way to the current tagline, ‘Botswana, our pride, your destination.’ This tagline did the trick. It seemed to hit all the pressure points in Batswana’s hearts.
Invariably some papers presented to the board dealt with emotive subjects on staff welfare. Often times, a few minutes into the board discussing a paper, she would somehow summon the sixth sense that enabled her to quickly discern that the board would reject management’s recommendations.
In such cases, which by the way, were few and far between, she would never allow the board to pronounce its decision on such papers. She would immediately withdraw the paper and wait for an opportune time to present a revised one.
She called that ‘a tactical retreat’ or ‘being streetwise’. And, I have to say, in many instances, the revised paper would be approved after some objective lobbying of the most influential board members. Of course, this is quite different from being manipulative.
She just happened to know what most of us know. That group mentality could be anti-progressive. And she would take advantage of one-on-one interventions to effectively sell her considered views. That was a great skill that enabled her to charm her way into the malleable hearts of some board members. And to borrow her language, ‘that often paid the bills’.
When she decided to leave BEDIA for politics, I was one of those people who were not really enthused. I felt that her contribution was still needed in the corporate world. But for her, it was obviously an honour and a privilege to respond to what she termed the ‘national calling’. Never one to mince her words, and never one to be fooled by chivalry, or forced into submission by misogyny and chauvinism, she undoubtedly made a few enemies during her corporate and political life. I will not attempt to defend her. She is sufficiently mature to handle that well. All I can do is to lovingly sound off this warning though; love her, or hate her, but ignore her at your own peril!
Lately, Dorcas has suffered a lot of vitriolic troll at the behest of strangers and perhaps a few acquaintances, many of whom have had the guts of peddling unjustified vile and inflammatory innuendos and insults on social media platforms. Once you objectively dissect such and throw away the fluff, you will often note that the underlying factor is vociferous hatred for Dorcas’ physical being. How absurd!
Knowing her, she has probably never wasted her valuable time reading the silly stuff that obtrusively veered off into her physical attributes.
Sadly, for some of these eccentric strangers and acquaintances, these factors alone were unwarrantedly amplified as sufficient fodder for erratically throwing stones without a care in the world, simply because in their little nook of the world, what they perceive as unattractive physical attributes constitute an ultimate transgression deserving of crucifixion. For these people, I can almost hear Dorcas singing out loud the slightly tweaked lyrics of one popular song; ‘I’m a big big girl, in a big big world, it’s not a big big deal if you hate me’.
Partiality is universally frowned upon simply because those driven by it unwittingly fall victim to judging others on the shallow basis of outward appearance rather than on the depth and breadth of their character. While some do so deliberately, a few blindly follow this beaten path, without having the faintest clue of where it is leading them.
I believe that such people deserve not only our forgiveness but our keen desire to educate and equip them with effective character assessment tools and skills.
I know Dorcas’ level of wisdom would never allow her to stoop to their level. The famous philosopher; Aristotle, once said something that could help Dorcas appreciate this.
He said, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” No one put it more aptly than Michelle Obama when she uttered the globally acclaimed phrase, “When they go low, we go high.”
Dorcas can certainly hear all the negative things said about her, but of course, she would never allow such undignified talk to define her character, to pigeonhole her, and to violate her dignity.
I like Chief and I am sure I will miss her. I want to believe that many people who have had the privilege of working closely with her feel the same way too. For now, I can only wish her well in her new job.
I want to conclude by giving the High Commissioner something to ruminate over as she discharges her new responsibility. Please take time to reflect on the words of one philanthropist named Tyler Perry; “You have the torch. It has already been bought and paid for. Now, it’s in your hands. Use it for good.”
“I’m a humble person.” Isn’t it true that the very moment one opens their mouth and engages their tongue to roll out these words, they would have lost all credibility to being humble? Values are not feelings, hobbies or wishes. All too often, our conduct reveals our values.
Values are not intellectual. They are heartfelt. In essence, they are a blueprint of principles that we embrace. They scream out what we are. At a personal level, they are the DNA of our moral fibre. And at a business level, they are representative of our corporate culture. Though we’re often driven to perform by highly demanding goal-centric work environments, en route to achieving such goals, it is essential to guard against being obsessed with outcomes such that we are pressurised to compromise on values cherished by our shareholders, employers, co-workers, friends and family.
The route to achieving our targets is often fraught with unanticipated challenges. Along the way, introspection is crucial. We need to make value-based decisions. However, we could find ourselves in an unenviable position if our heart becomes a confluence of conflicting emotions. We could easily find that our feelings and values are misaligned. If our passion to excel in reaching our goals happens to be the only important thing, we are likely to be tempted to act in ways that are at variance with our values. Living the lie as it were!
This explains why some people would not think twice about bribing a person endowed with the authority to make decisions in their favour. These could be government inspectors, assessors of loan applications, traffic officers, auditors, insurance assessors and even officers responsible for admitting students to institutions of higher learning.
Let’s discuss some important values, starting with love. Love is best described by stating what it is not. Among other things, one revered book describes it this way, ‘does not brag, does not boast, is not rude, is not self-seeking, does not delight in evil…’ A practical expression of love wards off possibility of leading a self-absorbed lifestyle, deliberately choosing to be inattentive to the needs of others. In simple terms, where love rules, the power of love always exceeds the love of power by an infinite margin.
Compelled by love, a regime that exercises authority over others cannot be sclerotic, but will always be responsive to the needs of the people. Driven by this value, a married person would never lay a hand on their spouse. Although thoughts of infidelity might invade one’s mind uninvited, inspired by this attribute, a married person would quickly quash such thoughts. Impelled by love, one would work hard to sustain themselves and their family rather than take the easy route of stealing or depending on handouts. Compassion and kindheartedness would define our personality.
Another important value is honesty. In many ways, this is closely linked to integrity. We need to be honest at home, in our neighbourhood, at work and in our business dealings.
A truthful inward looking assessment of ourselves might reveal that we’ve all been dishonest at some stage in our life. Of course, we may be tempted to rationalise on varying degrees of honesty and claim that our dishonesty was an inconsequential fib. But isn’t it true that if we allowed this value to shape us, we would be a more ethic-driven society and by extension more cohesive and stronger?
Motivated by honesty, through one corner of their mouth, a married person would not avow their love for their mate, while disingenuously using the other corner to express deep feelings of affection to another person of the opposite gender.
In their cellphone’s contact list, close friends of the opposite sex would not be assigned names associated with the other gender. Messages received and calls made and received would not be deleted before one arrives home. Empowered by this value, if we are married in community of property, we would not own assets of material value that our spouses have no clue about. In our business contracts we would not squeeze in an illegible fine print that would impose a heavy burden on our partners or clients.
We would all be productive at work, deliberately refraining from using our employers’ assets for personal benefit without permission.
Whenever the going gets tough at work, our resilience and perseverance would kick in , motivating us to dig deep and push ourselves. We would see beyond current obstacles, and visualise ourselves crossing the finishing line, elatedly holding that trophy above our heads with a sense of accomplishment.
If we allowed honesty to define us, we would not make promises with a clear intention of not fulfilling them. Be they promises to the electorate, our employees, our employers, our family and our friends. We would resist the temptation to take undue advantage of economic refugees by underpaying them for services rendered. It is for good reason that Warren Buffett said, “Honesty is a very expensive gift. Don’t expect it from cheap people.”
What about broad-mindedness? Not necessarily being naïve. But acknowledging that we cannot always believe that it is only our lens that gives the best panoramic view of life. There are a myriad of possibilities. Perhaps that explains why the Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, “It is the mark of an educated man to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
What are your values?