A Conversation with Philip Steenkamp

Abstract

The consummate, results-oriented professional he was, Philip Steenkamp, never confused an official meetingwith a social get-together. That account comes a thousand kilometres away from someone who should know. ‘When he was at his desk or at a meeting, he did not allow distractions to creep in, he dealt with the matter at hand and only then, would he allow social discussions. He was thus efficient in terms of time management. He was able to accomplish most tasks, if not all, at the end of the day’, says Molosiwa Selepeng, Botswana’s High Commissioner to Australia. ‘Hard-working’ and ‘focused’ are the other qualities that Selepeng attributes to this Kenyan-born Afrikaner who fetched up in colonial Botswana (Bechuanaland Protectorate) in 1955 as a district officer cadet and became a naturalised citizen 11 years later.