Background
Bakwana Kgosidintsi Kgari was born in October 29, 1921, at Serowe, Botswana
Bakwana Kgosidintsi Kgari was born in October 29, 1921, at Serowe, Botswana
Educated at Serowe Primary School, then sent to Tiger Kloof Institution, Vriburg, South Africa.
On leaving school in 1939 he became a clerk in the District Commissioner’s office at Francistown. In 1941 he left for more money as a clerk with the South African recruiting agency for mines, the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association, and was promoted chief clerk in 1943 to work at Maun, 300 miles west of Francistown.
He joined the British Protectorate service in 1948 in the control office as a clerk and then transferred in 1950 to the District Commissioner’s office at Maun. In June 1957 he was sent to Francistown and promoted to District Officer Cadet. He was transferred to Serowe in December 1957, staying there until 1960 when he resigned from government service.
After joining a trading company owned by the treasurer of the Botswana Democratic Party, Benjamin Steinberg, he took an increasing interest in politics. He became a member of the BDP in 1962 and was asked by Steinberg to help audit the party's accounts in 1963. Gradually he found himself more involved in financial work for the party than in the trading company.
He entered Parliament as MP for Serowe South in the March 1965 elections. In the 1970 reshuffle when the Finance Ministry was enlarged to include Development Planning he was appointed to Dr Quett Masire as Assistant Minister. He has taken a close interest in localising the civil service—expanding training programmes to enable qualified Botswana citizens to take over from expatriates without trying to get rid of outsiders too hastily. Firmly opposed to making any concessions to the South African government, he accepts inevitable contacts at official level but he has no time for a dialogue with apartheid. Because of his interest in legal matters and police affairs he attended the Commonwealth Law Conference in London in January 1973.
A man of great sincerity and integrity who gives the impression of being in politics for what he can put into government rather than what he can get out of it. His value to the President is that he can be trusted to take sensible decisions on his own and does not panic. A direct speaker with a healthy cynicism towards florid oratory he is not obsessed with ambition although he is clearly a rising star in politics.
He was son of a headman who married a woman linked to the Khamas through the Sekgoma tribe