Helping out the President

Once it was evident that we had restored the fortunes of the brewery and that it was solvent, we arranged for the President, Sir Seretse Khama, to visit the operation. It was a surprisingly low key affair. The President was genuinely interested in what we were doing and what we had done to sort the place out.

During our discussions after a guided tour of the brewery, one of the issues we discussed was roads .

“My MP’s are telling me that we are wasting a lot of money on building fancy tarred roads,” he said.

I was able to briefly take him into the yard.

“Mr President,” I said, “you see that old looking truck with ‘Prinz Brau’ logos? Well that truck used to go to Molepolole on Tuesday mornings, before the road was tarred. It then spent the rest of the week in the brewery garage being repaired, to be ready for the next Tuesday. If you now see that new truck with Castle Lager logos on the side, well, that truck now goes to Molepolole on the new tarred road on Tuesday mornings; then spends Tuesday afternoons and the rest of the week making deliveries in Gabs. That is the benefit we get from your wonderful road building program.”

The president laughed. “I can now tell that story to all my MP’s. They’ll have to find something else to complain about now.”