Ode to ntateza
Correspondent | Tuesday December 20, 2022 06:00
Answering to many names such a 'malume, Tablas, Rhee, (list Is endless)
Remember was an interlocutor of note. Remember as he was known countrywide was what many may regard as the (salt of Mahalapye), he would often be found holding a quart at the popular Xavtees Bar and Restaurant as travelers who made a pit stop at the joint would ply him copious amounts of drinks.
A reveler par excellence, Rhee would always hold peoples spellbound with his adventures In South Africa.
To make his yams more believable he would always punctuate them with heavily accented South African Tswana dialect. Tales abound of him being in Orapa where he had the 'Luck' of picking diamonds on the surface, which came with monetary reward.
The company had a policy of rewarding those who picked the precious stones lying about. Rhee being Rhee would always be at the right tlme at the right place and would deliver the stones to the company for rewards, Who can forget his signature two front teeth missing at his beloved Hotspurs Matthes, which he followed with a passion.'Buckline',he would commandeer fellow football fanatics to move further from the touchline. Later on his buddy RT LT Colonel Webb tagged him to Arusha in Tanzania and gifted him with two Pearly white front teeth.
A very gregarious and affable man Rhee would travel the length and breadth of the country to attend funerals where he would weep buckets. At various social gatherings one would hear someone mention that when they were in far away places such as Atlanta and they mentioned Mahalapye a question would be posed 'Do you know Remember' As his health took a slide he was still the life and soul on gatherings and would mention that 'tshwere ke shukiri'-a vernacular for Diabetes.
As age and ill health took its toll on him he woiuld rough his ingenuity 'form of a company' that guarded Watershed mall in Mahalapye. Last we talked he mentioned something about awaiting his package from the mall owners. Surely Rhee was a true son of Mahalapye and he will be sorely missed. Rest in peace salt of the earth. Ke shone sheo!
*Victor Molosi