His colleague, former BPP publicity secretary, Edwin Mhaladi describes Molapise as an honest politician, who always speaks his mind even if what he has to say is unpopular. “He upholds democratic principles and he has not joined politics to get a job. He is a national leader who condemns greediness.” Mhaladi says at some stage, Molapise worked hard to rescue the BPP from sinking. “He stood by the BPP when it needed him most. May be there would be no BPP if he did not stand up and defend some of the bad decisions that would have seen the party going under.” He describes Molapise as a true servant of the people he is serving. “When you go to his place anytime, he will abandon whatever he is doing to attend to you. He is the kind of a leader you will trust.”
“Honestly speaking, Molapise is intelligent. When he speaks during council businesses he puts his whole energy in it,” explains city clerk, Louis Sebeo. He says when Molapise debates, it is easy to notice that he is a man who understands his job fully.
Councillor Tabengwa Tabengwa of the BCP describes Molapise as a responsible politician who contributes immensely to council debates. His main problem is that Molapise can be unreliable at times. “He can lobby for support from you and then all of a sudden, he attacks you for failing to articulate a motion that he had sponsored, instead of simply appreciating your contribution,” he says.
He cites a motion on corrupt land allocation in the city. “After seconding him for the motion, he attacked me claiming that I did not understand the motion,” says Tabengwa.
BPP veteran, Neo Motlhabane says Molapise was quiet instrumental in the party in the 1980S as he toured the country after the death of the former party leader, Phillip Matante, canvassing for Dr Knight Maripe to be the successor. Molapise was a key figure in drumming up support for Maripe who eventually became party leader with Motlhabane as vice president. Molapise is not from the party-bastion of the northeast and he was viewed as a neutral man who would deal with the liberals and the conservative. Motlhabane says at times Molapise proved to be too radical. “He is one man who would drive a point to its logical end. The thing is that our party at times had some tribal problems and he would do his level best to cool off tempers,” he says.
Molapise joined the BPP in 1967 and was inspired by the leadership prowess of Matante. The other man who inspired him was the BPP former secretary general, Peter Maruping.
He is one of the first squatter settlers at the Somerset-West location. “In the whole of Francistown, land was in the hands of the Tati Company (TC) and if we did not squat, then there would be no Francistown,” he says. As a result of squatting, he says the government was forced to buy land from TC and allocate it to the needy.
When he left his home village of Mmadinare, he was driven by the need to get a decent job in Francistown. His first job was as an assistant at the Haskins shop where he rose to become a manager.
In 1978, he joined the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC). He remained with BTC until 1984 when he joined politics. He became city mayor in 1994 until his party colleagues, Peter Ngoma and Lamodimo Dikomang launched a coup against him.
In 2000 he succeeded Maripe as BPP president. “I never dreamt I would be the party president. There was a crisis within the party in 1998 and I worked very hard to ensure that the party did not go under,” he says.
He denies that he is opposed to the tri-party pact. “I am advocating for the pact and I support the arrangement fully”. But he claims that the whole of Francistown and other areas must be allocated to his party to contest in the polls. He claims Francistown is a BPP stronghold.
