Stallion: Nicking revolution, Soviet counter-revolution booklets
Ryder Gabathuse | Tuesday March 3, 2026 10:50
“I love horses and I am a cowboy,” explains the ever-laughing legislator. He, however, insists that the name Stallion is not simply derived from his love for horses. There is a sentimental attachment to it.
“Someone had just written: ‘Nata-Gweta needs a new stallion’, and from that conversation, I got the moniker. And from that newspaper article, I got named Stallion. And it became a fitting name as it describes everything I am,” explains the former University of Botswana (UB) lecturer in Politics and International Relations.
The Mosetse-born politician, whose life journey is well documented, may have experienced life’s threatening political challenges, but to him, he chose to defy all layers of odds he had faced. Besides the political challenges, Ookeditse fought so hard against the penurious state at his family house. He never left anything to chance. He confronted trials with gusto.
When he first lost to the former Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Nata-Gweta legislator, the maverick Polson Majaga, in the party primaries in 2018, naysayers might have boldly written Ookeditse’s political obituary, but his return was expedited and fabled. It was stormy like a lightweight cart drawn by a sturdy stallion. Even the once mighty and popular Majaga did not know what really hit him in the 2024 General Election. For some time after ousting former MP Oliphant Mfa, Majaga was no pushover. And under him, Nata-Gweta was not easily penetrable. The Stallion did the unthinkable in 2024. It was a shocking ousting.
Ookeditse joined active politics in 2018 when he resigned from his government job to contest the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) primary elections for the Nata-Gweta constituency. He eventually lost to Majaga but later joined the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) and won the Nata-Gweta seat in the 2024 polls.
Before joining politics, Ookeditse had quite a varied career. He was a lecturer at the UB, a research coordinator for Population Services International and a columnist for newspapers like Mmegi, where he commented on socio-economic and political issues. He also did some work as a radio host and was involved in youth empowerment, serving as director of youth at the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture Development. His move into politics was reportedly precipitated by his desire to serve and contribute to his community.
When did the Stallion
cut his teeth in politics?
Three moments stand out in his life and he still has faint memories of coming from primary school in his home village Mosetse in the 90s and hearing loud chants of “Shangooooo” or “Ae jeke Domkrag”, slogans of the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) and BDP respectively. The young Ookeditse was curious and wondered what these were. “That’s all that comes to mind when I try to get a recollection of what was happening,” he reminisces.
“Then some day, a whole swarm of refugees came along the road singing and chanting. They were walking from Dukwi refugee camp. They entered yards looking for drinking water- I was to learn these were South Africans who wanted to go back home as apartheid had ended and Mandela was free. “ These were possibly the first two glimmers of what he remembers as politics.
The third and final one will be literature. “I read a children’s story book. The title was ‘One day we had to run’,” he remembers.
“Funny, but I cried throughout the book. It was about abrupt and total disruption of a family when a war broke out. The family got separated and the children had to go become refugees.”
The children’s book scarred him for life. To this day, his eyes well up with tears when he recalls the story. He thinks that is the most poignant moment that led to some form of consciousness to human political organisation and its consequences. A curiosity about the world and how unkind it could be.
Later on, by coincidence he was to find two booklets in his father’s brief case. On revolution and Soviet counter-revolution. The funny thing is he (father) had never spoken about them, and the young Ookeditse had never heard him speak any dialectical materialism.
“Anyway, I nicked these and went to Shashe River School with them. And I kept them close and ultimately went to the University of Botswana to do first year with them. But somehow, I lost these two booklets. Which makes me sad.”
His formal study in Political Science at the UB was to put everything in perspective. He and some of his peers were fascinated by Mass BNF at the UB. Their meetings would go on at block 240, room 10 or 11 until 2 am. Well, that was not before a certain man short in stature, and with long Afro hair, would stand on top of a table and try persuading the crowd. He was to later learn that he was Oliver Modise.
Ookeditse to,ok a liking to Joram Matomela who was the Student Representative Council (SRC) minister of information and propaganda. More calm and not as theatrical as Oliver was. But then a twist came- someday, Ketlhalefile Motshegwa (his classmate), now Minister of Local Government a,nd Traditional Affairs, asked that they meet someone at the staff lounge garden. And they went. The man was a young, ambitious Dumelang Saleshando who was wrestling the Gaborone Central parliamentary seat from Margaret Nasha of the BDP.
Later in his studies journey, Ookeditse met a dreadlocked man, alongside his east European wife. He was Dr. Motsomi Marobela. Long story short, from his teachings and documents, he learnt all he could about socialism and communism. He learnt more from his study meetings with him and Dr Kirsten Andre Marobela (wife) than he learnt communism from his Political Science classes.
Marobela believed firmly in “Praxis”. At some stage, they marched with placards together with mine workers from the BCL Mine when they were being expelled, and they also marched with mine workers from Debswana when the 461 or so faced the axe. They would also march in support of Roy Sesana and the Basarwa of the CKGR. But they didn’t have much power. The revolutionary zeal cruising through their veins was not enough to spark society into rebellion and revolution. “But we kept at it. We published ‘International Socialist Botswana’, a newsletter that sought to raise consciousness. We would distribute the paper at the main mall.”
But over time, demands kept growing apart. Ookeditse was an avid footballer in addition to being a debater. So, competing priorities eventually made him and his peers lose the regularity of their contacts.
“But Dr Marobela shaped us, our political consciousness. And it is during these that I met a certain Monang. We at times called him Parks. Later simply Cde Monang. He was a solid cadre.” This is how he was shaped politically. Despite his addiction to Dr Marobela’s addictive teachings, he was focused on his studies and wanted to cut it as an analyst. And he did. But it wasn’t enough. “I did a lot of media work just as an analyst.”
But eventually, he got drawn into the politics from a number of interactions with Tebogo and Thapelo Olopeng. That is when he was converted into the BDP. And it became his political home for quite a while.
Now, as part of the 13th Parliament, the Stallion thinks he brings great value (both theory and practice) to the debates after all those years of political awakening and consciousness. But even more, he likes that he is being himself. “I pick what I want, and I stand with my people always.”
He attributes it to hard work that his party, the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF), which he is also the party president of, have unseated the BDP from their stronghold after nearly 60 years.