Moswaane: Swayed by dearth to alter lives
Ryder Gabathuse | Tuesday January 27, 2026 08:05
Moswaane has a popular moniker, ‘Timmy’, borrowed from a character in an American soap opera, Passions, because of his loquacious disposition while a councillor at the Francistown City Council. He confesses that when he landed in Francistown in 1984 from Sefhare village in Tswapong South, he and his family were diametrically battered by abject poverty to the core. He relocated to Francistown in search of opportunities to quench the effects of deprivation in his family.
Later in 1987, at only 20 years of age, he obtained membership of the then ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) in Francistown, which would later heighten to activism in1999. He has been a Francistowner since, and politics has been his second nature. The only time he is out of Francistown is on occasion of duty in Gaborone at both Parliament and Cabinet duties. Monarch location has been his permanent address since he landed in Francistown in 1984.
“I grew up exposed to abject poverty from a family of seven troubled by an extensive state of privation,” emphasises the politician who is also the Assistant Minister of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, further indicating that his is not a poem but realism.
Because of the numerous low-income locations in the city, at the time, Francistown was christened a moniker ‘ghetto’, which is still stuck even with its city status, accompanied by improved fortunes. He would also be troubled by the stark reality that the northern town was also generally poverty-stricken, with people living in squalid conditions and subsisting below the poverty datum line.
The state of the low-income locations touched him, and he long vowed one day he would rise to fight the situation.
“I think representatives of the people then were so relaxed and seemingly did not care about the plight of the people and were somewhat reluctant to step in and cure the people’s quandaries.”
He credits both Sir Seretse and Masisi (a senior brother to the former president Mokgweetsi Masisi) for having duly shaped his political life. He also claims Masisi had similar characteristics to him, especially as the latter was so close to the ordinary people, which made him so popular amongst the constituents in Francistown West. Challenging Masisi for the party ticket at the primaries was a tall order. Politicians Peter Ngoma and Sylvia Muzila can tell a better story as they both tried their luck and were disappointed.
“I learnt mobilising strategies for grassroots politics from Masisi, who was so sharp in terms of rallying the constituency behind him and the party. I learnt a lot from him.”
As for Sir Seretse, Moswaane had adopted some leadership qualities from the pioneering president of both the BDP and the State, most importantly, perseverance and resilience. Seretse is the father of the country’s fourth president, Ian Khama.
Moswaane holds the late Masisi or ‘TW’ as he was affectionately known in high esteem, and also credits him for having worked so well with the people, and he could dine and drink with the hoi polloi.
During Moswaane’s early years in politics, he was a student of Masisi’s home-brewed brand of politics, commonly known as ‘ ferefereism’ and ‘chekwanism’, which had entrenched Masisi as the people’s favourite. Masisi knew how to keep people eating from his palms all the time and always felt the pulse of his constituents. Through ferefereism and chekwanism, he knew how to literally enthral people through his jokes and thereby win their hearts and minds. He would even pretend he enjoyed the traditional beer (Chibuku) with the people when in fact he was merely passing the box of the traditional beer by his mouth, leaving a long-lasting impact on the masses.
He could dance to traditional songs with his people, making him a true servant leader, which Moswaane has adopted as well. He incessantly took notes from his mentor Masisi, and dislodging him from his constituents will be a tall order.
Driven into politics by social circumstances, Moswaane’s dream has always been to read for law or train as a pilot, but household poverty frustrated his bidding.
“Due to abject poverty that my siblings and I endured, furthering my education was not a priority at all for me,” he reminisced. “You will recall that my mother died when I was only a five-year-old, and she did not have a sister or brother to help in our upbringing.”
Moswaane’s father, as he says, was so poor that despite his exertions, he could not bring anything to the table, “and even the help of the Social Workers was so elusive.”
In spite of odds stacked against him, his first breakthrough in furthering education came in 1990, just six years after landing in the then town of Francistown, when he managed to train while he was working and did a diploma in Business Management/Sales and Marketing. His first major job was with Express Cartage, a logistics company that brought food to his table.
He is currently pursuing studies with the Victoria Christian Bible School, where he is doing his Degree in Business Management/Pastoral Theology. His wish is to push until he reaches the sky.
Bishop Engenas Joseph Lekganyane, spiritual head of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC), bearing a dove (Ya Leeba) is Moswaane’s spiritual father and mentor. “He has helped me grow in many ways,” he boldly declares. He also considers Lekganyane to be a great motivator of all time. After 10 years as a councillor for Monarch South, serving under his former MP Masisi, Moswaane first tried his luck in a by-election precipitated by the demise of his mentor Tshelang Masisi in 2014, but something happened that denied him an opportunity to represent the people. The party leadership (BDP) did not handle the primary elections protest properly; he was not heard, and he went to court out of frustration.
The aggrieved party member, Whyte Marobela, had sought a court injunction that would offer opposition Botswana Congress Party (BCP) a chance to win the by-election through Dr Habaudi Hubona, as the favourite BDP was barred from contesting in the 2014 by-election by a court order. Moswaane would, however, bounce back in the 2014 General Election proper, winning back the constituency. In the 2024 General Election, he won the constituency for the third time under the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC).
There is also one more thing that proved his standing power as a tried and tested politician. In the 2009 polls, he had won party primaries to stand as a councillor for Monarch South ward, but the party leadership decided to call for a re-run after he had won with a margin of one vote against the now deceased Baboni Mosalagae.
Moswaane would finally be out of the race for the BDP ticket. That year, he stood as an independent councillor candidate, and he won the council seat, beating Mosalagae, who was preferred by some party officials. He would be shocked when former president Ian Khama announced at a party function in Mahalapye (without consulting him), announcing that he would be returned to the party even before he could apply for re-admission.
Moswaane’s UDC journey commenced properly during the COVID-19 era after he broke ranks with the BDP legislators, accusing the Masisi-led government of corruption. He was worried by a pattern of the government incessantly inflating prices of tenders in 2020. His concern was that in most cases costs of planning were reasonable, whilst the prices at the financial stage were just ridiculous.
“I was suspended from the party, and immediately the party came up with a Bill on floor crossing law targeting some of us. I would later cross the floor before the Bill became a law. That’s when I joined the UDC as a direct member before I later joined the BPP.”
The legislator is proud that even after Doubting Thomases had dismissed his move to the UDC as suicidal, from the 2024 polls, “my support in Francistown West has since doubled despite the change in the party.”
He asserts that as a servant leader, he loves his people, and even in community projects, they speak loudly about his services to the people.
“Most of the Village Development Committees (VDCs) we have through constituency community projects, we have built ward administrative centres which house VDCs and Social and Community Development officers,” he explains.
Moswaane is certain that the constituents are with him, and he works closely with them. It’s his strategy that he holds constituency leadership forums with ward development committees and other stakeholders to ensure they all read from the same page in their quest to take developments to the people. With an estimated population of 36,000 people, Francistown West constituency, Moswaane says he approaches the area through his family system strategy. “You have to know and understand the needs of the families. I know all the families and their needs in the constituency.” The MP is, however, worried by poverty and unemployment in the area, as young people in particular are affected by unemployment. He is also concerned that young people are into drugs, with the constituency literally battling the scourge to no avail.
“This is a sad story, and it doesn’t leave out any family. The majority of the young people are deep into drugs. Peer pressure is a problem,” bemoaned the MP. He also cited the rise of teenage mothers without providing statistics.
Moswaane has also raised a worrying development in which the majority of the people do not have land of their own.
This, he says, is even though the city has land that can produce about 40,000 plots, with a currently estimated 15,000 waiting list of people awaiting allocation.
Through his latest move, he is attempting to press for the speeding up of allocation, which he thinks the authority can provide plots to the low-income bracket at minimal services and deal with those who can afford high-cost allocations to pay their specific amounts to get land.
He raised a concern that after delaying allocations, the council has a tendency to repossess land because, even though authorities, in most cases, are responsible for delayed allocation, they expect people to be prompt with developments.
In his third term as an MP, Moswaane is confident that with stakeholders, so far, he is convinced the efforts of reducing abject poverty in his constituency stand at a promising 70 %. Annually, he helps young people in his area to access brigades and vocational education centres for vocational education.
He assists the young constituents with funds to travel for interviews and other purposes so that they can ultimately improve their lives. He had realised that Form 3s and Form 5s have not been progressing to tertiary institutions in large numbers, which has been pushing them into bad behaviours like engaging in drugs and other societal ills. As for unemployed graduates, he has been appealing to them to join hands and create jobs for themselves and others. He also encourages them to go into partnerships that can take them to greater heights.
Moswaane has a history of bad temper, especially on the floor of Parliament, which has resulted in him being sent out of the House twice.
He, however, doesn’t consider himself temperamental; he rather blames the parliamentary system for not being ‘Westminster’ as once one criticises the Minister for failures, it’s taken as a worse offence.
In 2017, Deputy Speaker then, Kagiso Molatlhegi, ordered Moswaane out of the House when he argued that Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital had turned into a ‘slaughter house’ as the hospital did not have sufficient medication, with people dying due to uncontrolled chronic conditions. Moswaane would then accuse Minister of Health Dr Alfred Madigele of being a failure, to the chagrin of Molatlhegi, who then ordered Moswaane to apologise, but he refused.
He would later take a BDP MP, Palelo Motasosane, head-on, which was described as unparliamentary, but he was unperturbed by the call.
The parliamentary Sergeant in Arms would later order his men to bundle Moswaane out of the House. He shouted and kicked to no avail.
In 2023, Moswaane found himself facing another Deputy Speaker, Pono Moatlhodi, on a position relating to the shortage of medication at government facilities. Moswaane’s voice was loud and clear in favour of the people when he told the Health Minister that chronic patients were dying due to an acute shortage of drugs, but Moatlhodi would have none of that. Moswaane’s main offence was to hold the Minister of Health at the time, Dr Edwin Dikoloti, to answer for the shortages. The Deputy Speaker accused Moswaane of being out of order and penalised him by throwing him out of the House. Moswaane proved his non-conformist nature by defying the Speakers.
“Moatlhodi was being unreasonable and forced me to withdraw, which I refused until he threw me outside. I chose to present my case, and I was thrown out.” Moswaane was a backbencher and wanted to speak for the people.
Now, as Assistant Minister Moswane feels he has a wider advantage to serve his people with aplomb. “I have a lot of advantages now. As a Minister, you have the benefit of appreciating processes of development. Remember, now, I speak for the government and not against. We take the services to the people.”
The outspoken MP has been vocal on various issues, including healthcare, corruption and government accountability. Of course, he is only limited by the fact that now he is part of the ruling party as a Cabinet member.
Moswaane as a family man lost a wife in 2020 and a son in 2021. He currently has a total of 16 children from different mothers and 12 grand children. Quizzed if he has plans of remarrying, the outspoken politician indicated he was yet to consult his children as they are still in the process of mourning.