The Legacy Project

Charles Mokobi boasts an illustrious ancestry of consummate farmers. Like folks of their era, his grandparents, Rra Seanokeng and Mma Johane of Nswazwi village in Serowe had lived off the land and depended on subsistence crop and livestock farming. His father Rev. Lekgowe Hamilton Mokobi (1908 – 1980), had spent his childhood and youth shuttling between herding the family livestock in Letlhaka during school holidays and attending school in Serowe. Lekgowe would later take up teaching as a career before he surrendered his life to serving God as a minister in the Spiritual Healing Church.

Rev. Hamilton Lekgowe Mokobi (1908 -1980)   

All the while he pursued his career and calling, Lekgowe continued in the great farming tradition of the Mokobi family. Charles recalls that his father was a man of solid faith and devotion to God and a strong commitment and dedication to his set goals. He was especially committed to education and farming. Charles fondly remembers that his father, ‘had let out a full span of sixteen oxen under the watchful eye of Rre Sekwati to ferry building materials for the construction of Moeng Collage,’ whilst a school head at Masokola Primary School in 1950.

Moeng Collage had been built through a community self-help initiative driven by Bangwato Regent, Kgosi Tshekedi Khama and Lekgowe had contributed to the project notwithstanding the prevailing acrimonious relationship between Bakalanga and Bangwato over the latter’s hegemony. Apart from his dedication to serving God, pastoral farming and teaching had been the twin vocations that Lekgowe pursued with a passion.  

Mrs Keitheng Mokobi (1911 – 1966)

Charles mother, Keitheng Mokobi (1911 – 1966) was the youngest daughter of renowned farmers Mmogwa and Ntizho Sedie of Dengu ward of Serowe. She would later grow up to become a devoted wife, loving mother and prolific farmer herself. Her doting son, Charles fondly remembers her as an, ‘industrious agriculturalist who single handedly managed the family ploughing fields in Bojelakhudu.’ 

Coming from such a fine pedigree of farmers, Charles was a strapping 18 year old adolescent in 1958 when his father gave each of his children a cow from amongst his herd in Leetselenthe, south of Serowe. This was Charles first cow. As a budding herdsman with an endearing love for cattle, Charles took to farming with passion and vigour. He had nurtured his herding skills in his formative years while herding his maternal aunt’s goats and calves during school holidays in Itsokwane lands outside Moiyabana.

Blessed with an exceptional calving, mortality and offtake rates the cow would go on to amass a staggering 32 offspring and descendants by 1976 when he went on to bolster his herd with the purchase of 21 cows from R.A. Baily Stores in Serowe and a bull from the Lobatse Estates Farm.

On completion of his law studies at the University of Lesotho, Charles joined the civil service and was ultimately posted to Gaborone. The country’s road network was in a terrible state in those days, “Botswana had only 6km of tarred road in 1966” and living in Gaborone did not bode well for cattle farming 500 km from ones place of work. However, Charles was not daunted, he was determined to make this cattle farming enterprise a success. He religiously traversed the long journey of unforgiving off-road Kalahari terrain at the end of every month to check on his investment. 

As his herd grew, Charles responded to the challenges of congestion and overgrazing in Leetselenthe by joining an exodus of pioneer farming tribesmen who tracked West in search of extensive native rangeland pastures of what is today, Western Sandveld bordering the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR). After successfully drilling a borehole in May 1978, Charles relocated his herd of 64 cattle and 9 calves to Gumaa Gabee cattle post in Xoohabele in December of the same year. 

 

The late Polai Nkgololang and his wife Mosadiwalebaka Polai - Polai was the herdsman who looked after Rev. Hamilton Lekgowe Mokobi’s cattle in Leetselenthe
 

The Government of Botswana had introduced the Tribal Land Grazing Policy (TGLP) in 1975 followed by the fencing component of the National Policy on Agricultural Development (NPAD) in 1991 in an endeavour to ensure sustainable use and prudent management of rangeland resources, as well as, to enhance livestock productivity. Charles benefited from this programme and was allocated a 6km x 6km ranch in 2003. From humble beginnings, Charles’ cattle farming enterprise has shown considerable strides and today the Gumaa Gabee free range beef cattle ranch is fully developed and issued a Certificate of Fenced Farm Registration which endorses its legal, ecological and administrative compliance to best farm management practices, requirements and regulations.  

Charles is a devote Catholic who has lived a long, fulfilling and accomplished life. He has been an avid sportsman and administrator, a passionate community and parish servant and he has served his country with distinction. He was bestowed with the Presidential Order of Meritorious Service by former President Festus Mogae in 2002 in recognition of his outstanding service both in government and for the community. Together with his wife, Kesitegile, they have dabbled in several successful business ventures in Serowe and the hinterlands. He is Chairman of the Serowe Trade Licencing Committee and member of Serowe Immigration Selection Board.

Now in the twilight of his life, Charles is thankful to his parents, family, friends, community and the Government of Botswana for his accomplishments in education, the arts, sports, business, farming, church and the civil service. He is especially thankful to God for his Grace and Blessings and has initiated the Legacy Project which commits to paper his gratitude, hopes and aspirations for the rich family farming tradition established and nurtured by his forebears and the future of the Gumaa Gabee beef cattle ranch.

The Legacy Project is an operational guide and financial proposal that seeks to implement several projects and initiatives which are intended to commercialise and diversify the Gumaa Gabee beef cattle farming enterprise. The project presents a business case for running of Gumaa Gabee cattle ranch to generate income, create employment opportunities and increase output, productivity and return on investment for stakeholders. 

The Legacy Project gives expression to Charles’ wish that his children, although educated and now following their respective careers, will also follow in the great family tradition of farming excellence. The project seeks to redefine Gumaa Gabee Cattle Ranches place in the beef cattle farming mainstream and facilitates evidence based planning that clearly demonstrates a solid management structure for the ranch, develops a policy and strategic framework that provides operational direction and financial guidance with illustrations on how resources such as money and effort are used in support of the ranches business needs and stakeholders return on investment.

 

Herdsmen - Charles flanked by sons, Aobakwe “Obza” (L) and Setho (R)