Paseka Mafa

Paseka Mafa, attached to the Roma Herbarium at the National University of Lesotho (NUL), died tragically in a car accident in Lesotho on 28 July 2001 at the age of 27. Paseka was one of the first young botanists to be attached to the SABONET Programme when it began in 1996. This tragic accident ended the life of one of southern Africa’s most talented, promising young botanists who had been involved in the regional capacity building project, and whose professional career was just starting in Lesotho.

Paseka Petrose Mafa was born in Lesotho on 12 April 1974. He attended St Agnes High School in Teyaneng from 1987 to 1991. From January to June 1992, Paseka attended a Lesotho Science Pre-Entry Course in Maseru with resultant recommendation for entrance to the National University of Lesotho in Roma (NUL). Between 1992 and 1996, Paseka successfully completed a BSc degree in Biology and Chemistry at NUL. His positions of responsibility at the university included being Secretary for Maintenance Services in the Student Representative Council from 1994 to 1995 and representing Chemistry students in the Executive Committee of the Science Society at NUL between 1994 and 1996. Paseka also worked for the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority’s Environment Division during the winter of 1994 (May to July). This involved collecting monthly outpatient data from all the health centres, clinics, and hospitals within the Katse Dam catchment area. His interests included soccer, reading, singing, and hiking.

Paseka joined the SABONET project in 1996 and was one of the participants of the first SABONET Regional Herbarium Management Course held in November 1996. He was privileged to have Prof. Chamarajanagar Nagendran as a mentor, close colleague, and friend at NUL between 1997 and 1998. Paseka continued to involve himself in several other SABONET courses held during 1997 and 1998: two database courses, fern identification (Malawi, November 1997), grass identification (Lesotho, December 1997), aquatic plant identification (Botswana, March/April 1998) and a threatened plants course (South Africa, June 1998). Paseka certainly took SABONET’s philosophy of “learning by doing” to heart, always keen to volunteer for tasks and enthusiastically participating in activities associated with the various training courses. He was always prepared to go the extra mile when required.

In September 1998, the SABONET Steering Committee approved support for several students to study for postgraduate degrees at southern African universities; Paseka was one of the first. He successfully completed his BSc (Hons) in Botany at the University of Cape Town in 1999, and his MSc (Systematics and Biodiversity Science) at the same university the following year. Paseka returned to Lesotho after two years full-time study in Cape Town in 2001.

He was set to continue his already significant contribution towards the study and documentation of Lesotho’s flora, using all the skills and knowledge he had learnt during his two years of study, when his life ended so tragically.

I shall always remember Paseka as a hard-working, friendly, generous, talented, enthusiastic, and committed person, who always lived life to the full. He was always willing to help others, wherever he could. For example, he spent a few days with Patrick Phiri (Zambia) at NUL in December 1997, sharing his knowledge and experience of working with the PRECIS Specimen Database.

In 1998, he also spent a week in Gaborone, Botswana, assisting staff of the National Herbarium with databasing their collections. Paseka, before leaving for his two years of study at the University of Cape Town, was personally responsible for computerising around 6,000 herbarium specimens (nearly half the total collection) at the Roma Herbarium in Lesotho. Paseka was also a regular contributor to SABONET News in providing the region with information on project-associated activities in Lesotho.

In the few years that Paseka was involved in the SABONET Project, he made friends wherever he went within the southern African region. Paseka will be sorely missed by all those who had the privilege of meeting and getting to know one of southern Africa’s most committed and talented young botanists. On behalf of all those members of the greater SABONET family around southern Africa, I would like to offer Paseka’s family and close friends my sincerest condolences for their great loss and the grief they are experiencing at this time. All those who knew him and who knew what he had contributed to southern African botany will miss Paseka.

—by Christopher Willis

SABONET Newsletter 6.3: 159