But in the middle of this, the home's head, Tuelo ‘Fish’ Masilo, has remained humble and is full of life despite his advanced age. The veteran karateka has a dojo in his yard. Upon approach, Masilo settles into his chair, immediately asks who sent Yours Truly and giggles. The man is a sport legend; a former footballer who earned the nickname ‘Fish’, a former boxer, known as the Black Cat in the 1960s and 1970s, and also a Fifth Dan black belt karateka. He is still a chief instructor at JKA Botswana. Masilo was inducted into the South Africa Martial Arts Hall of Fame in 2004.
He tells MmegiSport that just like any boy, he grew up herding his parents' cattle in Tshidilamolomo. “When I was 16years [old], I decided to relocate to South Africa and settled in Vryburg in 1955. I decided to move after realising that I did not have a future in Botswana. It was not easy being in South Africa. Remember those were the times of apartheid, the Boers had a policy of strict segregation and discrimination. I was lucky to be employed by a white man in a furniture company, who was feared by the Boers, which made it easy for me to get a driver’s licence in 1955. I am not educated but I never worked in a mine. I was a fast learner and my boss liked me, he even taught me to change oil and fuel his aircraft,” he said. Masilo said the ill-treatment he received from the Boers forced him to take sport seriously and in 1976, he combined boxing and wrestling. He explained that combining boxing and wrestling was a way to protect himself against bullies, especially the Boers. “Even the miners gave us trouble when they came home for the holidays. I had to find a way to protect myself. I started to go to the gym, using a punching bag as well as using a sack filled with sand in the bush. My father thought I had gone mad because the moment I started training, I was like a possessed person. But I was not free at wrestling, the Boers used me as their practice target. In 1959, I relocated to Kimberly, which is where I quit wrestling because I was not allowed to wrestle against whites. I decided to focus on boxing and I travelled around the country as a professional boxer. When my daughter, Connie was born, I quit boxing and joined karate. I was trained by one Chinese man in Kimberly,” he said. Masilo said he trained with white men, but if he was not strong enough, he could have quit as it was hard work. He said during all that time, he was thinking about moving back to Botswana.
