GATWE BATSWANA ARE TOO SLOW BUSINESS WISE

Actually it turns out that a lot of Batswana using social media were agitated when they saw this picture of a neatly packaged Phane posted by a South African entrepreneur last week. South Africans sell these mophane worms in different forms of packages under the brand names Mopani, Mopani Worms and Mashonzha among other names. On one of these packages, there is a catch line at the bottom that reads: Freshly Harvested From Botswana. The marketing and packaging of these worms is a big thing in South Africa and it turns out 95 percent of the delicacy is bought from Botswana ka dikgetsi at a very cheap price compared to what a small package will cost you when you pick it from a shelf inside a supermarket in Durban Or Pretoria. Many commentators were expressing anger, worry, jealousy and regret that Batswana who have long been known to harvest the mophane worms could not even think of doing something similar. Those who did were called out for not being as aggressive in the marketing of the product as has been the South Africans. Kana e bile some Batswana will tell you gore hey, Phane ya Mzansi e monate go gaisa ya Botswana, when they would actually be biting at a dried worm picked from under their nose in Botswana. Those who discussed the matter ridiculed the locals for being too relaxed or too slow when it comes to business, with foreigners always profiting from what we have lived with everyday, without thinking that we could actually make a million in year instead of the ten pula we are happy to receive for some freely available products in the bush. Gopola kgang ya Sengaparile! Sale re bapa le sone, foreigners came, harvested it and now are selling it to us as tablets and processed tea for arthritis!