He speaks of Mabijo with great passion that one would think he was speaking of a real life character. Anyway, he has got every reason to do that, as the cartoon is his own brainchild. The child he has nurtured so well in the past two decades and still loves to see it grow in the coming years. According to Motswetla, the idea of doing a cartoon started after finishing his Form Five at Moeng College back in 1988. "I loved art from a very young age and wanted to continue being an artist after finishing school," said Motswetla. Fortunately for him, he was posted to the then Department of Information do to his national service (Tirelo Setshaba) and this is when he brought his idea to life as the cartoon strip started appearing in the Daily News, which fell under the department.
The Serowe-born cartoonist says after finishing his year-long service at the department, he went on to study Art and English at the Molepolole College of Education (MCE) where he continued to do the cartoon for the government newspaper. Speaking of Mabijo Motswetla said he came up with the character out of some imaginative creativity. He wanted Mabijo to be an outstanding figure and his creativity helped him achieve exactly that. He said he named Mabijo after one of his uncles' nickname. "I have an uncle who used to be a boxer and he called himself Mabijo, so I decided to name my cartoon character after him as I admired my uncle very much," he said.
