Another Independence Veteran Departs

GALE NGAKANE
Correspondent | Monday February 4, 2008 00:00

 

For a number of years he taught at a primary school in Mengwe, next to Maitengwe. The business bug then bit him and ventured into a number of projects. He started by buying and selling cattle and procured game trophies from hunters, which he then sold as far as Johannesburg in South Africa. His eldest son, Elliot Chibandu Maswikiti says his father did not confine himself to selling cattle in Botswana only. He sold them in South Africa and Democratic Republic of Congo. When the Botswana Meat Commission commenced operations, Maswikiti responded by forming a company called Botswana Producers' Agency whose sole purpose was to sell cattle to BMC.

At the same time, he ran trading stores in Makobo and his home village of Nshakashogwe in the Bokalaka area. His public transport vehicles were a great help to many people who used to travel to Francistown for work.

When Batswana started agitating for independence in the early 1960s, Maswikiti was an active participants. Hence, when the country attained independence in 1966, he was one of the first MPs as a representative of Sebina-Gweta.

He was in Parliament for 23 years and until he resigned to give others a chance. When Maswikiti retired from politics, he left the Sebina/Gweta seat to the late Richard Ndwapi.

Maswikiti went into full time farming - both pastoral and arable - after quitting politics. In 2003 at the age of 87, ill-health made him abandon farming to enjoy the sunset and dote on his grandchildren in Francistown.

In summing up his father's life Elliot said: 'Father was actively involved in the development of this country. He has worked with a lot of people for the advancement of the country. At one stage he was delegated by the government to England for purposes of benchmarking'.

Of his six children, two have since passed on. He has seven grand children. At the time of going to press, funeral arrangements were still being finalised.