Botswana Civil Service Pensioners Association members on Friday descended on Botanical Gardens Museum in Gaborone to celebrate life lived perfectly well, reminding the active and serving civil servants that there is life after retirement.
Batswana retirees are usually discarded after serving in the civil service but recently some pensioners came together and organized themselves to dispel any notion that they are spent forces and of no use to society.
Speaking at the occasion, Babutsi Beauty Selabe, the head of Partner Business Development Services indicated there was more the retirees could offer to the civil service and to the development of the country in general.
Selabe, herself a retiree and pensioner, urged the current crop to fear nothing about retirement as a prudent “financially and emotionally” planned retirement would not lead to temptations.
“Besides networking and paying homage to the pioneers and members of BCSPA, the meeting is all but to showcase our relevance not only to the leadership but to active youths and civil service. We want to tell them that ageing and retirement is part of life,” said Selabe, who, as the guest speaker, reminded the audience that was a mixed bag of the former parastatal, government and private employees that thronged the meeting.
Former civil service servants icons that graced the event included BCSPA president Norman Moleboge and former minister Gaositwe Chiepe.
Moleboge, Botswana’s former ambassador to Namibia, also served in the police service as a constable to eventually reach the top post of the security organization while Chiepe served in numerous ministries before fading into oblivion as a retiree.
“The meeting provides that our children take the cue from us as former civil servants and prepare themselves for their own future,” Selabe highlighted, saying as former government, parastatals and private employees “we have not expired”.
“We still have a lot to contribute to our families, the civil society and government. We are retirees but not tired as we still have the energy to give back to the community that is ever changing,” she said.
Although they have since passed away, pioneers of BCSPA were celebrated posthumously with the likes of Dr Simon Moeti, Dr David Sebina, MacDonald Seema and Mmualefe Raditladi, amongst others, awarded certificates for laying an unbreakable foundation of the organization that has grown in leaps and bounds.
Started as a public officers’ initiative, BCSPA has morphed to include everybody retired at 45.
“Even our parents at home are not discriminated against…they could join the project,” Moleboge said.
With 17 branches currently under its belt across the country, BCSPA intends to expand further with the organization asking for a Good Samaritan to come to their rescue and build yet another facility in Gaborone.
Chiepe, who looked surprisingly agile, also awarded the certificates of appreciation to the members.
Simon Hirschfield, also former Botswana Police Service Commissioner, and Peggy Matome were amongst the recipients.
