His nickname ‘Taosi’ graces the lips of prospective voters throughout his home village of Thamaga. Motaosane, a backbencher who broke Thamaga’s long history of producing ministers is admired in these parts despite his lowly educational qualifications. Motaosane is a Junior Secondary School Certificate (JC) holder. Those who know him will tell you that he never forgets where he comes from nor who he represents. Motaosane, who evolved from serving as a councillor for Thamaga North ward to becoming a Member of Parliament (MP), has shown himself to be a people’s person and is known for bringing himself to the masses’ level. The man is approachable and still attends social gatherings in the constituency, a thing he did as a councillor for 15 years between 2004 and 2019. Motaosane’s loyalists in the area say he has proved, time and again, that it is important to connect with people at a personal level. Residents of Thamaga-Kumakwane’s concerns have always been that ministerial appointments delayed developments to their area as the MPs had to also deal with their ministerial assignments, so they saw Motaosane’s backbench role as a blessing in disguise. Despite having to take a back seat in President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s administration for five years, Motaosane showed that he can still draw big and enthusiastic crowds when he crushed his opponents in the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) primaries earlier in July.
Motaosane finished way ahead with 3, 404 votes while his supposed main challenger, Tiro Lepotokisi trailed a distant second with 997 votes. Setshwano Mokgweetsinyana had 204 while the only female candidate, Reetsang Mhitshane polled 196 votes. Motaosane is not new to thrashing his opponents, so in 2019 when he first entered the National Assembly, he registered a landslide against Kefentse Khumomotse of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), polling more than 13, 000 votes while the latter was way behind at just above 3, 000. This time around, Motaosane faces UDC’s Kopano Rannatshe and the indication is that the latter does not stand a chance against the revered Motaosane. During the launch, Vice President (VP) Slumber Tsogwane told the crowd at Thamaga Primary Hospital grounds that Motaosane was one of the dedicated and truthful MPs in the just ended 12th Parliament. Although he did not say it outrightly, Tsogwane said having Motaosane in the backbench worked for the BDP because he had to serve in multiple Parliamentary committees after opposition MPs abandoned the duties in protests. Since ministers cannot sit in the committees, Tsogwane indicated that Motaosane had a lot on his plate while at the same time serving his constituents in Thamaga-Kumakwane. Tsogwane highlighted that Motaosane showed that MPs can still do a lot without serving in the Cabinet.
