MOLOSIWA Selepeng is an anomaly.
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As Botswana's High Commissioner to Australia, he represents a country of just two million people.
Some might argue it is barely enough people to justify a diplomatic post in Australia.
And yet the large Botswana embassy stands tall in Deakin and in Selepeng boasts a head of mission who can claim what no other high commissioner or ambassador in Canberra can boast.
While he may not have the lobbying power of his counterparts from America or Israel - his meetings with our Prime Ministers have been limited to the usual Australia Day ceremonial encounters - he is at the moment the longest serving head of a diplomatic mission to Australia.
Selepeng can be classed more of a Canberran than many Canberrans since he took up his post nine years ago.
He has two years more service than his closest rival, the High Commissioner for Papua New Guinea, Charles Lepani.
And he has seen out peers from 112 other countries during a time when he established a diplomatic mission where none existed before.
He plans to see out a few more diplomatic colleagues before he departs Down Under in 2015.
We sit inside the embassy underneath photos of Botswanan rivers and Selepeng sips Chinese green tea.
Democratic Botswana has invested a lot in this small part of Deakin.
The embassy cost $10 million to build and Selepeng was one of progressive-thinking Botswana's highest ranking public servants before he came to Australia to build a mission.
The question is, why?
The day we meet the growing importance of the Australia-Botswana relationship is particularly clear.
On that very day, a little more than a week ago, the first Australian-owned mine opened in Botswana. The ASX-listed Discovery Metals is now mining in the Kalahari Copperbelt, aiming to harvest 36,000 to 50,000 tonnes of copper a year for the next 15 to 25 years.
The company also holds a controlling stake of 40 per cent in the Dikoloti Nickel Project and early in 2011 was granted 17 prospecting licences of over 15,000 square kilometres in southern Botswana that may become part of the world-class Kalahari Manganese Field.
Discovery Metals describes Botswana as a transparent and mining friendly democracy with an A-credit rated economy and an attractive profit based tax system.
According to Selepeng, Discovery Metals is the first of many Australian companies about to launch in Botswana.
''There are 30 Australian companies prospecting in Botswana,'' he says.
''We [the Botswanans] have recently discovered methane gas as well as 220 billion tonnes of coal.''
It is quickly obvious they need some help getting all that wealth out of the ground.
The small African nation noted for its stability does not have enough geologists and engineers to do all the mining and the Botswanan Government will happily reap the royalties these foreign companies pay.
When Selepeng arrived in Australia, the only relationship between the two countries was the Commonwealth of Nations.
Now the Botswana High Commissioner is able to strike up conversations with leading Australian politicians in his office of choice, the golf course.
Selepeng describes himself as an average golfer who rarely practises and relies on a 29 handicap.
But the fairway - or perhaps in Selepeng's case, the rough - is the location of his most memorable diplomatic victory.
And the victory had nothing to do with minerals.
During the Coalition reign, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer hosted tours around Australia with many diplomats.
On one of these trips he happened to be sharing a two-person golf cart with Selepeng.
''We discussed everything under the sun and then he said, 'Botswana is an admirable country but the Australian Government has little to show for its relationship with your country because it is not in the realm of aid we provide. What can the Australian Government do for Botswana?' ''
Selepeng explained AIDS was the biggest affliction facing his country at the time.
With Downer's help, six scholarships a year were established for Botswanan medical students to study in Australia and research ways to combat AIDS.
The AusAID program still runs today in a slightly different form and has actually expanded in size and scope to include agricultural and public policy scholarships.
Other initiatives promoted by the Botswana High Commission include a bushfire management program in which expert firefighters from NSW train Botswanans to battle blazes.
There are also 750 students from Botswana sponsored by their homeland studying in Australia.
When Selepeng, 65, finishes his Australian posting, he plans to retire.
When he does put his feet up, he will do so in a peaceful country which he has served his entire life.
One which is the longest running continuous democratic country in Africa and, according to Transparency International, has the most open governance among all African nations.
It is a nation which celebrates the 46th anniversary of its independence on September 27.