
Letsema Motsemme dedicated a better part of his public service tenure spending sleepless nights working extended hours to organise the life of former President Sir Ketumile Masire as his Senior Private Secretary. From their first encounter while he was Chief Economist in the Ministry of Agriculture in the 1980s, Masire knew he had found his man whom he later hand-picked to work in his office after rising through the ranks in the public service. In an interview with The Patriot on Sunday Motsemme, now a private consultant, says he must have made a good impression on Sir Ketumile after he was redeployed to the then Ministry of Trade and Industry as Director Industrial Affairs. "While preparing for Botswana's accession to the World Trade Organisation, which involved drafting of Bills preparing the country to be admitted as one of the first members I had to work over December holidays when everybody else was enjoying their Christmas with their families. I drove to Sekoma to trace Masire at his farm because he had to sign an accession instrument so that we could submit before the deadline which was near. After waiting for 2-3 hours, Masire arrived and signed the papers but insisted…