Mothudi and FAB push to make the full spectrum of violence against women impossible to ignore
Afro-feminist, Tlamelo Mothudi, is deeply passionate about legal interpretation and human rights, an interest shaped by her experiences as a survivor of gender-based violence and by the influence of her inspirational late mother, Joyce Manthobatsang Mothudi, a woman who reinvented herself fearlessly throughout her life.
In this conversation with Voice Woman, Tlamelo – who completed her undergraduate studies at the University of KwaZulu Natal (BA, Philosophy, Politics and Law), and went on to attend Rhodes University (LLB) and the University of Cape Town (LLM) – reflects on her legal background, her work in civil society, and her activism through the Feminist Alliance Botswana (FAB), an open, voluntary intersectional feminist collective advocating for women’s right to thrive across economic, social, health, educational and political spheres.
“I have over 20 years’ experience in legal interpretation and research. My working group within FAB focuses on Violence Against Women. I’m also part of the Economic and Climate group, and the Freedom of Choice and Bodily Autonomy group. I advocate for the decriminalisation of abortion in Botswana. My passion is ensuring that the laws we build are responsive, and that the laws we amend reflect the dynamic nature of our culture.”
Watching her mother pivot from nursing to law and later into politics taught Tlamelo that women can carve out any path, even in the face of adversity. That strength has guided her feminist identity and her commitment to legislative reform.
Looking back on her final year of LL.B. studies at Rhodes University in 2012, she recalls her mother’s boldness.
Unable to pay tuition fees, they sought help directly from former President Festus Mogae. “I asked, ‘Mum, how will you even reach him?’ She simply said, ‘I know the former president.’”
Undeterred by the Mogae’s security detail upon arrival at his residence, they waited outside until he emerged.
Mma Mothudi explained their situation. “Within no time, I was walking beside him into the FNB branch in Phakalane, where he arranged my sponsorship just in time for enrolment. My mother was a powerhouse,” she remembers.
“I lost her under very painful circumstances, but she is the basis of everything I am.” After graduating, the youngster worked at her university’s law clinic, and briefly in legal practice, before becoming disillusioned by how access to justice was shaped by class, geography, and education.
This led her into civil society work at the Public Service Accountability Monitor in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, where she focused on health rights for rural women, service delivery, and legislative oversight.
Determined to continue in this space, she returned to Botswana to focus on public interest litigation.
“My interests range from the intersection of climate change and health to mining communities’ rights, public participation, sexual and reproductive health, and the right to safe abortion. Last year, I also worked for BONELA as an advocacy and project officer.”
A survivor of sexual and physical assault from her teens through her twenties, the married mother-of-one anchors her advocacy in lived experience. “It’s still baby steps for me to talk about it. I realised the importance of doing so when I had my daughter; I needed to be able to discuss bodily integrity with her. When one experiences GBV without understanding it, one tends to self-blame. Perpetrators rely on that. And society often shames survivors instead of commending them.”
Her husband was the first person she confided in. From then on, she found the courage to open up to her family. “I’m a complex individual shaped by experiences that built, rather than broke, me. I no longer think what happened to me is my fault. I work in this space so other women know they’ve done nothing wrong and that they can speak about it. Stigma and silence only protect perpetrators,” she explains.
Her journey is also intertwined with her mother’s. “It is also an ode to my late mother.
In the 1980s, she fell in love with a South African exile who was later killed by a letter bomb.
She only discovered the truth when, as a nurse, she performed his autopsy.
Though she never practised law, that tragedy pushed her toward the legal field and ultimately into political activism. I’ve taken the baton. I carry her with me, honouring the sacrifices of a single mother who singlehandedly educated four children,” says Tlamelo, an Oxfam and Atlantic Institute fellow who will be admitted to practise in the High Court of Botswana this Friday.
FAB’s message for this year’s 16 Days of Activism focuses on making the full spectrum of violence against women visible. Ahead of the campaign, FAB’s Violence Against Women working group partnered with the Women in Film Guild to gather real stories of violence that often remain unspoken.
The Guild is producing an advocacy video to be shared across digital platforms and government ministries, “because naming violence is part of ending it.”
On Friday the 12 th , FAB will host the second annual Her Kgotla public screening of the video, followed by a discussion on women’s participation in shaping the laws that govern their lives. “We hope it can influence interventions in law and policy, policing, provisioning of support infrastructure and changing narratives to ensure that womxn remain at the center of the GBV response in Botswana and that we can continue to think of, and create spaces, using different mediums, for our participation in issues that affect us.”
The organisation will close the year with a community conversation focusing on the spectrum of violence against women in light of the upcoming draft of the GBV bill and the urgent need for meaningful inclusion of women’s voices in national policy.
“While this is a critical legislative step, the exclusion of feminist voices and lived experiences raises serious questions about the legitimacy and efficacy of the final framework,” she states in conclusion.
To register or get more information about the Kgotla, kindly click on this link on or before the 8 th December, 2025-
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf8VrywE2sZDfN2g3ukbzsMKECwAt1IugK3M2mQoBTu2gTl5Q/viewform?usp=publish-editor
For enquiries, email:
– tlamelommothudi@gmail.com
– angelinahmontshiwa@gmail.com
– feminist.alliance.botswana@gmail.com
– Contact : 755 69078
