A requiem for Tsoo

Ryder Gabathuse | Tuesday April 22, 2025 15:24

The depressing news of his passing was broken just on the verge of the Mmegi newspaper early deadline last Wednesday ahead of the Easter Holidays. Area W or Dablaas, as his location is affectionately known and (his home of many years), will never be the same again. In his own backyard, Tsoo was very popular with the hoi polloi in particular. That’s the reason why in an area that isn't crime-free, he chose to proudly walk home and to work (under the bridge and crossing the railway line) instead of giving business to the local taxi operators. His daily route took him past the Francistown bus and taxi ranks and he was least tempted to utilise their services. For the longest time, Mosikare’s byline, which went missing from the two titles, fretted his inquisitive regular readers who even raised alarm, “Kante o kae Mosikare? (Where is Mosikare?)” they would ask.

We were all hopeful that the argumentative journo will be back. Mosikare had so many monikers, which included Tsoo, Festival, Law, and Mokgalajwe amongst others. The name Festival came about through Chakalisa Dube because of Mosikare’s love for merrymaking and fine things in life. Certainly, he loved his cold drinks. Dube had a penchant for calling the journo whose age made him his senior with all sorts of names including Mokgalajwe. To some, the Dube-Mosikare relationship depicted brotherhood in the workplace. The Matsiloje-born journalist was morbid for sometime until he succumbed to an illness that saw him admitted to the Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital before he was moved to the Jubilee Hospital where he further battled with a respiratory ailment or pulmonary condition as he coughed incessantly. To those in the know, Tsoo was indeed an indefatigable fighter who had indeed fought a good fight. Unfortunately, he couldn't fight forever. His passing came at a time when his colleagues at both Mmegi and The Monitor were hoping to reunite with him in no time. Their hopes were raised by a recent telephone call he had made through another Francistown-based colleague Lesedi Mkhutshwa’s mobile phone for the benefit of the newsroom. On the call, he sounded full of life and to him it was only a matter of days before he was discharged from the hospital and back to his place in the newsroom. In our earlier telephone conversation the same day, Mosikare was upbeat that he would never imbibe his best drink again without shedding more light on that decision.

He insisted that he had chosen to give his God a chance. A former colleague, Dube corroborated Mosikare’s story in an unrelated conversation indicating that in the days before he was hospitalised, he had reconciled with God. Actually, Dube highlighted that this was the time he started battling with a threat to his health. In one of the many comments on Mosikare’s passing, there is one writer who still remembers the journo finding his way to church in a befuddled state. This, we learnt was intentional as it was some of his efforts of giving his God a chance. One incident that depicted Mosikare’s sturdy character was when we had covered a Shashe-Mooke council ward by-election in 2011, which was ultimately won by the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) candidate Isaac Mabechu. He (Mosikare) was working for Botswana Guardian and The Midweek Sun then. Tsoo came to the event in his element and apparently bustling with energy. Unfortunately, whilst covering this event, he accidentally tripped a Botswana Police Service (BPS) duty camera infuriating the men of the law. Despite his tawny figure, Mosikare chose to take the police head on as they seemed unamused and not ready to take his apology. I liked it when he shouted, “I'm a journalist (which he pronounced jonalist repeatedly).” You can imagine the muscular police officers could have easily thrown him out of an already crowded hall. He would later blame those who chose the venue to be responsible for the overcrowding protesting that he only accidentally tripped the camera without malice. That was his character, never wanting to easily lose an argument.

In 2013, Mosikare knocked at the Mmegi Francistown offices for a job and was granted an opportunity on freelance basis, which he performed with aplomb until his last breath. He arrived just a year after his former colleague at Botswana Guardian, Dube had just settled at the Mmegi Ngilichi office. It was easy to recruit from the sister company, then. The 42-year-old and father of three settled well at the Mmegi and The Monitor where he was a regular contributor with his court and political contributions that no editor would decline to publish. He had a good nose for news. From 2017, his writing abilities earned him a permanent job in the newsroom until he was affected by the post COVID-19 business realities when he was retained as an in-house freelancer. Whilst the change in status was painful, Mosikare remained a focused writer whose work was impactful. After many years of reporting court (both High Court and Magistrates' Court), Mosikare considered himself the country’s best court reporter to the extent that he would choose to add ‘ undesirables’ in his stories as a way of expressing his flexibilities. Correcting his stories often attracted whinges from the man who felt his articles should not be touched but allowed to go in their original form. During production days, Mosikare kept tight watch of his stories and how they were treated along the chain of editing. He wouldn't allow production to pass without his objections.

This was Tsoo, who has had the opportunity to also train our interns some of whom are respectable writers. As for the people he had come into contact with by virtue of his job, including the media fraternity, Tsoo has left positive impressions. Francistown-based The Voice’s Kabelo Dipholo wrote about Tsoo: “I will miss your anomalous perspective on almost everything but above all the football and political banter over a cold one.” Ndulamo Ntopo, a member of Botash communications team, writes about Mosikare: “You were truly passionate and dedicated to your work. I can’t recall a single Botash event you missed, no matter the distance or transport challenges, you always found a way to honour the invitation on behalf of Mmegi.” Dr Habaudi Hubona, a Francistown-based medic and member of the Botswana Congress Party, remembered Mosikare: “Even giants can fall like that? I am hurt, RIP comrade.” University of Botswana political scientist, Professor Zibani Maundeni commented on Facebook: “Rest in peace Mr. I will miss your interviews. The media has lost a good journalist.” His former editor at The Midweek Sun, Abraham Motsokono describes Tsoo as a patient, yet tenacious young man who would stop at nothing to get a story. “If it was not from the courts, it was from the crime beat. For the entire time I was his editor as Bureau Chief at Botswana Guardian and The Midweek Sun, I don’t remember at any point being disappointed in him over anything to do with his work,” he told The Monitor, wishing Mosikare’s soul to find eternal rest. This is what The Monitor editor, Maureen Odubeng, said about her fallen reporter: “Mosikare or Tsoo as many affectionately called him, took pride in his work and wouldn't shy away from telling editors that he has written a masterpiece that deserves front-page. He was a hard worker and often brought life to work related debates,” she said. “He could be argumentative at times, but would immediately go back to his bubbly self like nothing had happened,” Odubeng added.

Tsoo had a penchant for advocating for good working conditions for media practitioners and he had no regrets for every word he had spoken in favour of improved working conditions. This was perhaps, inherent from his love for politics. In his life, at some stage Mosikare found himself torn between political activism and his first love, news writing. He had chosen the BCP as his political home and he had problems hiding it. He knew he also had a job to keep. I must hasten to add that the reason we kept him at the courtrooms was purely to keep him away from political activity. Whilst he fought hard to remain apolitical, one day he took part in BCP internal elections at Itekeng ward in Francistown and lost the primaries via a single vote. Mosikare had wanted to make a grand entrance into political activism proper, and dump writing. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. He would become a regular visitor to a meeting place in Francistown known as ‘Parliament’ for usual political commentary. It was his political activism that would further earn him another moniker ‘Comrade’. Tsoo also loved his identity as a Morolong from Matsiloje, the village he revered so much despite spending the bulk of his time in the hood of Dablaas as Area W location is affectionately called. Mosikare’s name is inscribed at the Francistown office alongside reputable journalists like his own brother Oarabile Mosikare, Dube, Tuduetso Kelapile, Pini Bothoko, Chandapiwa Baputaki, Ofe Motiki, Joel Konopo, Tomeletso Sereetsi, Ephraim Keoreng, Isaac Pinielo, Gale Ngakane and Peter Madiya to mention but a few. Tsoo will be laid to rest in Francistown on Saturday. Rest in peace Tholo.