Michael Kitso Dingake rightfully deserves a national honour (Comment)

Born on 11th February 1928 in Bobonong, Michael Kitso Dingake, who passed away on Sunday 7th 2024 at age 96, has lived a full life of service to humanity. For the larger part of his life, his exploits were in the domains of political liberation and education. Dingake has acquitted himself diligently.

A member of the African National Congress since 1952 during the volatile period of the Defiance Campaign, serving in its various committees; co-opted into the South African Communist Party during the 1961 State of Emergency; including serving in the Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK) Johannesburg Regional Structure – MK, as Dingake, was affectionately known was and is an ever-present cadre of South Africa’s liberation movement.

Documents from the Office of the Presidency in Pretoria show that as a member of the ANC Volunteer Corps, Dingake participated in all the campaigns of the period – Against Bantu Education, Congress of the People, We

Stand by Our Leaders, the Alexandra Bus Boycott of 1957, Potato Boycott, Sophiatown removals, One Pound-a-Day, the Women Anti-Pass Campaign of 1959, the Pass Burning after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 and the Anti-White Republic Protests.

He was finally arrested on 8th December 1965, tortured and condemned to Robben Island prison on 6th May 1966 where he spent 15 years alongside other prominent ANC cadres such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki, until his release on 5th May 1981.

Back home in Botswana, Dingake continued his service to humanity, becoming Vice President of the Dr Kenneth Koma-led Botswana National Front (BNF), and helping in 1998 to found the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) for which he was elected its founding president until 2001.

Dingake retired from active politics in 2001 to pursue his other passion – education – which saw him serving in the Public Relations department of the University of Botswana (UB), which institution of higher learning would later award him an Honorary Doctorate Degree of Letters. In South Africa, the Government acknowledged Dingake’s contribution to the bringing about of a non-racial, no-sexist democratic South Africa by conferring him with the ‘Grand Companion of The Order of the Companions of OR Tambo in Gold’ in April 2007.

Certainly, Dingake’s service in South Africa and Botswana demonstrates the futility of the fictitious colonial borders. When all is said and done, Botswana will do herself good not to turn a blind eye to this giant of a man. We are richer, wiser and free because of his efforts! He deserves a National Honour. And President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi has proven himself a cut above the rest, when he rose above partisan politics to name some of the country’s national monuments after former opposition party members.

In the same spirit, we urge him and his National Honours Committee to consider Michael Kitso Dingake a deserving candidate for the country’s highest honour. In this way, we help to portray an objective and factual narrative of the country’s history. May the soul of Comrade MK rest in peace