Background
HASKINS, James was born on April 24, 1914 in. Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia). Son of George James and Mary Haskins.
HASKINS, James was born on April 24, 1914 in. Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia). Son of George James and Mary Haskins.
Plumtree School, Zimbabwe and J. W. Jagger Business Training College.
he spent 30 years in business before entering the government as Minister of Commerce, Industry and Water Affairs in March 1966 in succession to David Morgan. He knows the farmers’ problems as a former chairman of Francistown Agricultural Society and a founder-member and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Livestock Producers’ Trust.
After business training with a South African company from 1935 to 1942 he joined the South African Service Corps. At the end of his war service he became company director a business based on Francistown with branches in Gaborone and the north.
He founded the Francistown Chamber of Commerce.
Tall with a military bearing, Haskins, who lost an eye during the 1939-1945 war, has taken the trouble to be fluent in the Tswana language.
Married Dorothy Louie Purdue in 1939.