Moitlhobogi, the extraordinary youth
His name is an oxymoron, by all accounts. It conjures in a contrasting form the imagery of trust in conditions of despair.
He is the 33 year-old Systems Engineer Thembani Moitlhobogi, the father of two who recently catapulted to celebrity status after he named the biggest diamond ever found in the land, ‘Lesedi la Rona’. The name has caught the whole world’s attention and it’s so humbling that it has a part of this lad from Mmadikola, who grew up and attended school in the Boteti region, where the mine that discovered the diamond, Karowe, is located.
By his admission, he is a very spiritual person who believes in God and puts him before everything he does. It was therefore not surprising that having placed his efforts before God to answer the call to name the biggest stone ever found at Karowe, he was ultimately declared the winner out of a total of 11000 entries.
Speaking to the media at an event organised to honour him by handing him the P25000.00 that he won from Lucara mine, Moitlhobogi confessed that whatever he does, he puts it to his Creator first and it is his faith that made him believe he will win the competition.
The story on how he entered the competition is good enough for a novel to produce an education documentary. It took the efforts of his wife Rue who was first to know about the competition. Rue did not waste any time. “She brought the competition forms home and we immediately brainstormed.” Rue herself has just completed her studies in marketing from the University of Mancosa in South Africa.
Coming up with names was an interesting process for Moitlhobogi who spent about two hours with his wife thinking over the matter. “My wife did research on the internet looking at the names of other diamonds,” he explains, adding that the name choice was influenced by numerous factors.
“First we thought about our situation in the country, the importance and the role that the diamonds play in our country. We drafted and ended up with five names and one of them was Lesedi la rona”. The other interesting name they came up with was Gwizi giant- Gwizi means a river that is the lifeblood of the people in the region where the diamond was found
Moitlhobogi reveals that he travelled extensively to several African countries and when “I say I come from Botswana, the people always say wow, you are coming from a rich country with good economy and it is called rich because of the diamonds”.
This greatly influenced him to the point he concluded it was very appropriate to call the stone- the light of our nation or the pillar of our economy. “So that is the motivation behind the name”. Moitlhobogi sang songs of praise for the sponsor, Lucara mine for giving him the opportunity to name the diamond “because it does not happen very often. We are very humbled by the honour”.
Although he has always been regarded as one of the celebrities and a role model because of his academic excellence, winning the competition has catapulted him to the pinnacle.
In his own words, “I got a lot of calls from my home village Mmadikola. My people back home are very proud that their son is the one who came up with the name, because we are not ordinary, we can safely be called the mining community because we have a lot of mines around our village.”
It is not surprising that Moitlhobogi was passionate about naming the biggest diamond ever found in the country, because diamonds have always had a great influence on his life.
He is the last of the six siblings born to Rebaone and Lemponye Moitlhobogi. He was born in Orapa and started his early education until Form 3 when he went to Letlhakane. His father worked for Orapa as a plumber for decades until 2002 when he retired.
The 33 year old is a father of two sons, Andile, 3, and Aone, 2. His being poor in Setswana language never discouraged Moitlhobogi from remaining focused in his studies. Not even the fact that some teachers especially at primary used to beat him up for his shortcoming. He graduated as a Telecommunication Engineer from the University of Essex in England.
He says he has not had much interest in sports, but rather focused on academics. His favourite subjects were Mathematics and Physics. He is currently working for Monitoring for Environment and Security in Africa (MESA) project run by the Meteorological department as a System Engineer. Moitlhobogi likes spending time with his family and travelling to places of interest such as Maun and Kasane. His favourite place is Hartebeest dam near Pretoria.
Moitlhobogi’s message to his fellow youth is that they should stop complaining and come up with plans to eke out a decent livelihood. “As youths we complain a lot to government to take care of us. What we overlook is that there are many opportunities out there, which we fail to utilise. But we expect and or prefer to live on handouts or to be spoon-fed.”
He says it is time to know that the best person who can make “change in your life is yourself”.Moitlhobogi is going to invest the money that he won and give back to the economy.