Morena o ba etele

Ryder Gabathuse | Friday August 1, 2014 15:39

 

This is one of the major events that he led before the life of this 44-year-old man was cut short by a car accident on Wednesday morning.

The atmosphere at the conference duly required action from someone who could stir people up. It was very dull and confusing. Delegates seemed completely lost. The official opening ceremony that was pencilled for 10am was delayed up to 3pm.

As a political leader, Motswaledi was seemingly concerned about the state of affairs and wanted to save the face of his political organisations (UDC and BMD) by taking the media on board so that after the President’s Holidays, the UDC would not get any shock of bad publicity from the actions or non-actions of its leaders.

He then assured us that all would be well as the delay of the conference was occasioned by the fact that the UDC president Duma Boko had, had a tyre burst in Mahalapye, on his way to Serowe and was definitely coming to the conference.

Already, there were fears that UDC combined conferences were going to be a flop as rumours had it that the comrades were engrossed in bitter infighting. He might have heard it, and he was itching to set the record straight before the official opening so as to counter negative perceptions.

Certainly, he was concerned about the fact that UDC leaders, including Boko, were habitual latecomers to UDC events. He wanted to get rid of this creeping image so that people could view UDC differently. But it was difficult.

So, he played a trick on the media to be sort of sympathetic to a problem that the UDC was still grappling with in-house issues. As media practitioners, I feel this smart leader psyched us up, so that we could play to his cards.

By any standard, Motswaledi was a shrewd fellow and always thorough with detail. Upon his arrival at the conference venue, on July 20, the familiar faces of the Mmegi crew from the Francistown bureau immediately caught his attention.

We were resting under a thick shade of a Mosu tree waiting for the function to commence and nibbling on some tasty provisions from Francistown.

He recognised us as he disembarked from his grey Audi A3 car, in which his life ended, parked just a stone’s throw from ours. He came to greet us with that trademark toothy smile, and of course, amid giggles.

That’s when he accused me of having unceremoniously ended the ‘talking’ relationship that we had. But, we have been Facebook friends although we did not talk much since he was a busy man and always on the road.

He also had a penchant for talking partisan politics whilst I felt safe discussing a wide range of political issues from across the political divide.

The day before the accident, my colleague Chakalisa Dube had reached him on his mobile and he said he was out of the country on party business in Johannesburg, South Africa.

I must have given him a wrong impression with my WhatsApp picture where I appeared in orange attire. Of course, he knew I was not with him politically.

But, that aside, we were friends from his activism days in the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) as a youth. Unlike his view, our friendship never died, but it was only that it was limited by certain unwritten rules.

In fact, he was a friend to everybody because of his openness and simplicity as a person.

We were still analysing Motswaledi’s character when suddenly the media practitioners were called in to a boardroom meeting within the Swaneng Hill School hall.

Motswaledi and some UDC leaders apologised to the media for the inconvenience of starting an event of that importance four hours later than the officially stated time.

He was literally in charge of the situation and I was amazed by his energy and amount of intellect. It’s like he had already pre-empted what stories were going to come from the UDC conferences.

He literally shook hands with media practitioners from the state and various members from the private press. To make all of us feel important, he repeatedly asked a single question: “ I wonder what has severed our friendship...”

But, in all this he still afforded to giggle and offer a smile to all.

Motswaledi must have realised that his comrades from the three parties of BMD, BNF and Botswana Peoples Party(BPP) were in a dull mood and not geared up for the conference. This was before the official opening commenced.

Motswaledi, the chorister, applied his prowess and led a hymn that set the event on fire, and left everyone singing loudly. “Morena o ba etele...(Lord visit them)” To a lot of us, he rekindled those years he spent with the KTM Choir as a lead singer belting out beautiful music to the nation.

As for me personally, he struck the right cord as he rekindled the memories of years of yore whilst I was a staunch member of the foot-stomping ZCC. I could only compare him to the fallen heroes of gospel music like Oleseng Shuping and Nkosana Koti

When he chose to hum his song, it was: “...Thi- ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma!” which was done with such brilliance and gusto, with a deliberate repetition so much that it left the whole hall literally humming as if a swarm of bees had come to personally deliver their sweet honey to the delegates.

That is how Motswaledi chose to woo the crowd that was earlier showing a lot of disinterest at their very event.

There was life in the Swaneng hall as re-awakened comrades joined in song dragging themselves from the hostels to the hall. In no time, the hall was bursting at its seams with members clad in the UDC colours of predominantly black and gold.

When he later performed the welcome remarks on behalf of the UDC chairman, Motlatsi Molapise, he spoke in such rich Setswana that he left a lot of Batswana-ba-sekei asking themselves what he was saying.  Motswaledi had a penchant of using colourful and very rich Setswana, which to a large extent promoted the language. He was quick to inform the conference that they should not be apologetic for choosing Serowe as their venue as historically it was a BDP stronghold.

“Go and see Serowe Development Trust as it has been in the news for a long time,” he said to thunderous applause from the hall.

Oblivious of what would befall him in a few weeks, Motswaledi poignantly called for the conference to observe a moment of silence as a sign of respect for the late Radio Botswana veteran broadcaster Brooks Monnaanoka who was recently laid to rest in Mahalapye.

Motswaledi’s passing on has robbed the country of a brave man who once took President Ian Khama to court challenging his powers which was uncommon within the ruling party. He lost the matter with costs.

It’s shocking how circumstances always connived against Motswaledi especially at a time when he was about to stand as a parliamentary candidate.

First he was forced to pave way for President Khama’s younger brother Tshekedi in Serowe North East, which he did grudgingly. Secondly, he had wished to be the BDP candidate for Gaborone Central, but because he had challenged the powers bestowed upon Khama, he was re-called as a party candidate.

Now, in the 2014 general elections, he was already busy preparing for the challenge but death came knocking on his door, infuriatingly robbing the constituents of quality representation again.

Whatever happened to Motswaledi, God knows and may his soul rest in eternal peace. The sad reality is that, we will never hear his voice in this life ever again.