Derek Jones (mayor)
John Derek Jones was an English Congregationalist missionary and politician in Botswana. A member of the Gaborone City Council, he served as the first Mayor of Gaborone from 1966 to 1968.Biography
John was born in England in 1927. He earned a master's degree at the University of Oxford, and then received his Diploma in Theology from Oxford's Mansfield College. He served in Egypt in the Royal Air Force for two years. After being ordained, he moved to the Bechuanaland Protectorate in 1954 as a missionary of the London Missionary Society. He later served as the Secretary of the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa.
When Gaborone was built as the independent Botswana's new capital in the 1960s, it needed a government. Vice-President Quett Masire urged him to run for city council as a Botswana Democratic Party candidate, but Jones did not believe that would be appropriate for a clergyman. Instead, he agreed to run as an independent and was elected unopposed in the South Ring constituency. Soon after, he was chosen as the city's first mayor in 1966. In 1968, he remained on the city council but stepped down as mayor, and was succeeded by Grace Dambe. He served his full term on the city council, but chose not to run for reelection in 1969. Soon after, he was awarded an OBE.
From 1972 to 1993, he managed the Botswana Book Centre. Later, he returned to England where he died on 9 March 2013, aged 86.
