Klaas Motshidisi (1932-2015)
Jeff Ramsay | Friday March 6, 2015 14:52
He began his career as a pioneer nationalist politician, labour organiser and human rights activist, while working at the Palapye Garage owned by a certain Tom Shaw. Prior to then he had attended primary school in Palapye. He thereafter completed correspondence courses with South African institutions before ultimately earning his BA in the Soviet Union.
Motshidisi was a founding member of the Bechuanaland/Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) in 1961, becoming a member of its executive. In this capacity he travelled with Motsamai Mpho and Phillip Matante to Ghana to secure international support for the fledging movement.
Following the Party’s 1962 split he emerged as the Secretary General of the BPP faction led by Mpho, that subsequently contested the first, March 1, 1965, general election as the Botswana Independence Party (BIP). He subsequently found his long term political home in the Botswana National Front (BNF).
It was also in the early 1960s that the late Motshidisi first became involved in trade unionism as the Secretary-General of the short lived Bechuanaland Trade Union Congress. After independence he joined the civil service for a period, becoming the Commissioner of Labour, where he earned a positive reputation for his fairness and devotion to duty.
After retiring he re-entered politics in the 1990s. In 1994 he unsuccessfully stood as the BNF candidate for Palapye against Festus Mogae. During the BNF infighting in the late 1990’s he supported Dr. Kenneth Koma and subsequently the 2001 leadership of Otsweletse Moupo, serving on the 2001-04 BNF Executive.
Besides his domestic activism, during the 1960s, Mr. Motshidisi also played a key role in securing the movement of political refugees through Botswana. In November 1962 he along with Mpho secured the release of Thabo Mbeki and other freedom fighters who were being deported via train from Southern Rhodesia to the apartheid Regime.