JC flop now thriving as king of second hand clothing

Mokganedi Kelesitse (42) from Kanye, was turned into an entrepreneur by harsh life circumstances after failing his Junior Certificate examinations at Ngwaketse Junior Secondary School in 2000.

He sells trendy second hand clothes that are in excellent condition behind Mongala Mall. He has multiple gazebos, filled with clothes for all genders. He also sells many types of shoes for different weather conditions and baby clothing.

Mokganedi revealed to The Midweek Sun during an interview that the last time he wore a school uniform was in the year 2000 and that he could not contain the pain of watching his peers leaving for school daily while he lingered helplessly after not being admitted to senior secondary school. He had nothing else to do.

"All I eventually had was plenty of business ideas but by that time I was broke and hopeless, I wished at the time that I could open a restaurant," he said.

The ambitious Mokganedi reveals he resisted the urge to resort to drugs and alcohol, instead he looked for temporary work with no luck but never gave up, until he got hired on temporary basis by a contractor at Jwaneng mine as a labourer. He earned P1400 and managed to save part of it to open a restaurant kiosk in Kanye.

After realising some profit from his business, he left his tedious job at the mine to run it in 2005. "My initial target market were the taxi drivers at that time, to my surprise, the restaurant grew bigger than I expected and it boosted my savings then," he says.

While being his own boss at the restaurant, Mokganedi’s business passion increased and he applied for a self-sponsored business scholarship abroad and was admitted in Ireland.

Mokganedi allowed his aunt to run the restaurant, but later it shut down while he was abroad.

"It was my first trip ever out of Botswana, that was in 2008 during the recession period, when things were tough," he adds. Mokganedi pursued his studies and managed to find a part time job while schooling.

The job paid him in Euros and he saved some little money to buy the stock container, which enabled him to transport second hand goods from Ireland to Botswana, and managed to grow his business from his sweat.

He first began by selling bales at affordable prices to Batswana and later noticed that the business was not profitable on his side and decided to set up his gazebos to sell contents of each bale.

His business has grown so much that he has hired a team of 10 youths, who assist him on daily basis.