Motsamai Mpho

Early Life^[1]

Motsamai Keyecwe Mpho (1921–2012) was born in Botswana (then Bechuanaland). Motsamai Keyecwe Mpho was born to a peasant family in Maun Bechuanaland (now Botswana) on 3 February 1921. His family came from a non-Setswana-speaking ethnic group, the Wayeyi. Mpho attended Moremi Primary School in Maun, and after completion went to further his education in South Africa at Tiger Kloof, Vyrburg, matriculating in 1944. He then returned to Bostwana where he was offered work as a telegraph operator. However in 1948, he returned to South Africa where he found work at the Crown Mines in Johannesburg as secretary of Reverend Anderson, a welfare officer at the mine.^[2]

Political Activism in South Africa

The Defiance Campaign of 1952 inspired Mpho to join the African National Congress (ANC) and he started attending rallies in Sophiatown. In 1953, Mpho was employed by the South African Christian Council and he became very active in the ANC. The following year, in 1953 he found work at the South African Council of Churches (SACC) where he closely worked with Reverend Arthur Blaxall, secretary of the SACC. Mpho became seriously involved in politics rising to become the Organizing Secretary of the ANC in Western Transvaal.

When the Congress of the People was convened in Kliptown in 1955, Mpho led more than 200 delegates from the ANC branches in the West Rand. In 1956, he was among the leaders who were arrested at the Drill Hall and charged with high treason. He was one of the first group of 67 Treason Trial detainees discharged together with Chief Albert Luthuli. The ANC was banned but its activities continued. Mpho also organised the committee members of Randfontein Old Location to burn their passes. As the state failed to prove its case, he was released alongside 67 others who included Chief Albert Luthuli. After his release Mpho continued with his anti apartheid political activities, he organized committee members of Randfontein Old Location to burn their passes. He was arrested during such a campaign in the West Rand, for entering Westonaria Location without a permit. It was during his detention in Pretoria Prison that he married his wife Onalepelo Hannah Macheng on 7 July 1960. A few days later, prison officials instructed him to leave South Africa within seven days and not to return.

As a consequence he was arrested for mounting a campaign of burning passes in West Rand and for entering Westonaria Location without a permit in open defiance to Apartheid’s pass laws. While in detention in Pretoria Prison, Mpho married his wife Onalepelo Hannah Macheng on 7 July 1960.

On 9 August 1960, Mpho left South Africa for Botswana after he was forced to do so by prison authorities. Despite leaving South Africa, Mpho still retained contact with the ANC and political developments in South Africa. He was instrumental in assisting ANC members in crossing the Botswana border to exile in Zambia and back to South Africa. At one time when he felt that his ANC comrades passing through Botswana were under threat from the Apartheid government, he organized people in Palapye to stop a train carrying Thabo Mbeki and Fish Kesting and set them free.

Political Activism in Botswana

While in Bechuanaland, Mpho formed the Botswana Independence Party, an active political party that assisted South African political activists to cross the Bechuanaland border en route to exile in Lusaka, Zambia, where the ANC had an office. Motsamai's Mpho’s commitment to the course of human freedom was universal and transcended borders. In 1969 Mpho became the first Member of Parliament for the Okavango Constituency and retained the seat until 1979 when he lost to Bailang Salepito of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP). He alongside Klaas Motshidisi, Kgalemang Motsete and Philip Matante became a founding member of the Botswana’s first political party, the Bechuanaland People’s Party (BPP). However, due to internal problems within the BPP, Mpho left the party and founded the Botswana Independence Party (BIP). He is credited with having come up with the name of the country Botswana instead of Bechuanaland. This was after he named his political party the Botswana Independence Party. In 1962 he attended the Pan Africanist Conference in Accra, Ghana. While he was on his way back to Botswana one of his comrades composed a song Fatshe leno La Rona (Our Land) which he taught them. Thus, Mpho became one of the first people to sing the national anthem Fatshe leno La Rona. He returned as an MP in 1984 when he contested and consistently won Maun/Chobe constituency until he retired from active politics..

Mpho died at Princes Marina Hospital in Botswana on 28 November 2012.^[3]

Awards

Presidential Award for Meritorious Service (Botswana Government)

Order of the Companions of O.R Tambo by the South African Government (26 April 2005)

References