The TikTok motshelo takes over
Mbongeni Mguni | Friday July 24, 2026 09:11
Just over two years ago, a young Motswana, Wayde Gabotlale, posted his first video on the popular social media platform, TikTok. Today, he has 112,300 followers, 5.7 million likes and his top video had two million views. Gabotlale, who goes by the handle Waydacayn, is amongst a niche of top Batswana players on TikTok, sealing brand endorsements and elevated profiles on one of the world’s fastest growing social media platforms. TikTok is the Gen Z meeting place, a scientifically designed and psychologically-tuned global meeting place of ideas, curiosity, ingenuity, scandal, influence, innovation, trends and everything else for the world’s most economically most important generation in terms of purchasing power. While Facebook is for family and the oldies (think Baby Boomers and Gen X), TikTok is for the young, alive with ambition and passion, the generation that believes it can change the world. The more cynical in the country (think Baby Boomers and Gen X) traditionally speak of how Batswana are their own worst enemies in terms of supporting entrepreneurial efforts. The complaint is that many Batswana tend not to support their own in business, thus leading to the failure of many efforts. On TikTok, the Gen Zs and other brave generations who have migrated to the platform, are disproving this cynicism. Batswana are seeking each other out on the app, liking, reposting, following and therefore boosting each other and helping profiles, brands and businesses grow. “I do believe Batswana have a strong support of each other on TikTok,” Gabotlale told Mmegi. “I have seen people opening businesses like Cinnabots who sell cinnamon buns. “Once they got onto TikTok, every single post was doing numbers. “People are not only just liking and sharing, but they're also going to buy. “You see them posting videos saying ‘we sold out before 11am’ or something like that. “So there's a lot of support that I've seen and my experience or from my perspective, Batswana are really supportive of each other.” But what exactly is the advantage of having likes, reposts and followers on TikTok? Gabotlale knows quite well. From that very first video on May 2, 2024, he has travelled the world, endorsed products from major firms and built a brand that is well sought after by businesses for partnerships and leveraging. “If you have a big following or if you're known by a lot of people, you can always use that to your advantage. “One way is to start a business, let's say cooking, and maybe you have a 100,000 followers, they will boost the marketing of that and so basically you have your own advertising platform. “Number two can be through brand deals. Because you have followers, brands do see that ‘this person is well trusted in this and if they were to help us promote this certain item or promote this certain service, then we'd get more customers than if we were to do it’. “Most people may not follow a bank, but they will follow William Last and if he talks about the bank, people get to learn and the bank gets more exposure through his followers.” Mpho Mmutle, who joined TikTok out of boredom during the home restrictions of COVID-19 in 2020, has seen Batswana grow their profiles and businesses on the social media platform. In fact, for many Batswana, the popularity of TikTok grew during the pandemic, as they used the platform to view and create videos, especially dancing and comedy skits, while keeping up with trends as the world hunkered down against the virus. Since then, Mmutle says she has witnessed the ‘TikTok motshelo’, where Batswana support each other towards building up brands and profiles. “The sense of community among Batswana on TikTok is incredibly strong and uniquely warm,” she told Mmegi. “Because our population is relatively small, the degrees of separation are tiny, making the platform feel like one giant virtual village. “Batswana are incredibly quick to support their own. “When a local creator posts something highly relatable or starts a trend, the comment section immediately fills up with inside jokes, shares and words of encouragement. “Creators frequently collaborate on duets, stitch each other's videos and organise physical meetups in places like Gaborone and Francistown. According to Mmutle, local TikTok boasts one of the country’s strongest entrepreneurial streaks. “The entrepreneurial spirit of BW TikTok is booming. “I've seen a massive wave of micro-businesses cropping up and finding their footing directly on the app. “Some of the most popular sectors include Thrift and Fashion Boutiques, Artisanal Food & Baking Home bakers and private chefs filming mouth-watering, behind-the-scenes prep videos of cakes, platters, and traditional cuisine, Beauty & Hair Services, Farming & Agriculture. “I've watched local thrift sellers start by taking orders strictly in the TikTok comments, progress to hosting pop-up stalls at local markets and eventually rent out permanent physical shop spaces.” As supportive as Batswana are on TikTok, there are nuances. Mmutle said her experience on the app has shown her that authenticity is the key currency. “Pushing a brand on TikTok is entirely different from traditional advertising; if you try to hard-sell to Batswana, they will swipe away instantly. “It taught me that on TikTok, authenticity is your currency. “Once people buy into you, they will happily buy into whatever you are selling,” she told Mmegi. Gabotlale has seen similar trends. In his journey on Tiktok, he stuck to his passion, technology, even though he was far from the brand deals and numbers that he has enjoyed since then. His advice to others who would like to following his path is simple - keep it real. “I would say the number one advice is don't do it because you want to make money. “Making money is of course the end goal of everyone just trying to do any career, but if you're going to start doing content, do something that you actually enjoy and love. “The truth about this content creation is that most people see me now and say ‘Wayde has been doing this, we see that he's getting some money,’ but the first year of my content creation, I was making nothing. “If you ask people who were following me back then, they would see me try to fix computers just to try and make money to build something.” He continued: “Whether I was making money or not didn't matter to me. “I was focused on just trying to do the thing that I liked and that's what kept me going for that tough period of time, which was in the beginning stages. “So if you are a person who doesn't like technology at all, but then you're trying to say, ‘I'm going to do tech content,’ thinking that it's going to be an immediate payout, you're going to spend the first two months and when there's nothing happening, you're going to quit. “That’s because you don't have the passion, you don't have the drive, you don't have anything that's pushing you, and no motivation to actually do that thing.” When he first started, Gabotlale, sent emails everywhere seeking partners. One or two responded and he leveraged his passion for technology to grow a massive brand. Today he counts brands such as Huawei and Absa amongst those he has partnered with. Central to his visibility to the brands was the efforts of Batswana, all lending a hand to each other in a beautiful authenticity built from organic growth. A TikTok motshelo of sorts.