Keamogetse Gaetwesepe- Sekgwa: Public service personified
On the 12th of October 1984 Keamogetse Botsile Gaetwesepe, a fresh- faced 22 year- old wet behind the ears Molepolole girl, waltzed into the offices of the department of immigration.
She was hired as Immigration Assistant, the lowest rank, at the District Office in Gaborone next to what is today known as the Central Business District ( CBD) – what used to be known as Cotton Fields.
On the 12th of October 2022, now a doting mother of three elderly children – Thuli, Tshego and Pearl – as well as a loving guardian to her late sister’s son, Tsotlhe - Keamogetse GaetwesepeSekgwa bid her work colleagues a hearty farewell following a rewarding 38 years of dedicated public service.
The second born in a family of eight siblings, ( only four remain) retires at the pinnacle of public service holding the position of Registration Superintendent in the Department of Civil and National Registration ( commonly known as O Mang) where she covered six districts - Kanye, Mabutsane, Jwaneng, Goodhope, Lobatse and Moshupa.
It has been a rollercoaster ride for this lady, who attributes her success to faith in God, hard work, commitment, loyalty and respect for authority. In fact, Keamogetse has earned the boasting rights to claim to know almost the entire width and breadth of this country.
In 1987 she was transferred from the District Office to Tlokweng Border Gate where she worked up to 1992 when she was transferred to Kanye Immigration. Here she stayed for only 17 months and was then transferred to Tsabong where she worked for four and half years before being transferred again to head Ramotswa station.
In an interview two days before her departure in Kanye, Keamogetse recalls the poor conditions of the roads in Tsabong in the early 1990s and how on her arrival there she was abruptly sent on an assignment to Vaalhoek.
Whilst in Vaalhoek to issue locals with passports, a call came from Tsabong that she must come there ( some 260 km) to be introduced to the Full Council sitting and return to Vaalhoek the next day! That is just how demanding work at Immigration was, Keamogetse recalls.
From Ramotswa where she was Head of Station Keamogetse was transferred to Selibe Phikwe in 2003 but could not leave immediately on account of a family issue ( was living with my late sister’s child who was still at school at the time) and was posted to Immigration offices in Block 8 where she was stationed for a year.
She left for Phikwe in 2004 and stayed there until 2005 when she was promoted and was supposed to go to Gumare, but because at the time of her transfer to Phikwe, her father, mother and brother were all sick she asked for some time before she could take up her post.
Fortunately, there was another officer that had been transferred to Pioneer Gate, so she asked to swap with him, and indeed he was taken to Gumare but for some reason, Keamogetse remained in Phikwe and continued commuting to Molepolole to nurse her parents and sibling.
In 2008 she asked to be transferred to Molepolole but was instead moved to Gaborone where she stayed until 2009 when she was promoted to C1 scale and was then transferred to Pioneer Gate as Head of Station.
The following year in 2010 Keamogetse was again promoted to D4 scale and in 2014 was transferred to head Sir Seretse Khama International Airport ( SKIA) station. She admits that heading a big station like SSKIA is no child’s play, and cites the Gaborone Youth Games, when the airport was a melee of activity and she, with the help of her supervisors and director at the time, Mabuse Pule, had to devise a strategy to cope with the situation.
In October 2015 she was promoted to Immigration Superintendent and was transferred to Maun as Regional Immigration Officer covering the whole Ngami from Makalamabedi to beyond Seronga ( or overseas in the locals’ lingo).
And then finally in July 2020 she arrived at O Mang as Registration Superintendent. Thanks to her cooperative subordinates and supportive supervisors as well as her wealth of knowledge of how the public service operates, she was able to adapt perfectly to her new job.
However, it was “a bit hectic” because she arrived at O Mang in the middle of the Covid- 19 pandemic. And since they deal with births and deaths registrations, her officers were worried sick at the rate people were dying and the number of certificates they had to issue and started panicking wondering if they were also about to die.
“I was a counsellor that never trained for the job. I told them we have to work regardless of the situation and implored them to put their trust in God, that He knows better, if we die it will be for public service, however, thank God here we are!”
Keamogetse’s performance has been confirmed by her work colleagues and supervisors. Peloeratang Segwagwe, the district registrar who was her assistant, describes Keamogetse as a “good supervisor” and that her retirement is a loss to the department.
And in the same breath, Kagisano Frank, the assistant director responsible for field services, who was Keamogetse’s supervisor, says in the short time that they worked together from 2020, she found Keamogetse to be a person with an open heart and willing to learn.
“She was also respectful to me as her supervisor although I am way much younger than her. She was a good supervisor who always urged her subordinates to be dedicated to their work. She would coach and mentor them.
“She was easy to approach and sociable even outside work,” she said about the lady who is now retiring into farming at Mogobewamoretlwa farmlands just outside Lentswe- le- Tau.