When Moabi Keaikitse died, many who knew him spoke quietly about an unassuming young man who rarely sought the spotlight. Yet in the days that followed, his passing ignited a national conversation far louder than anything he might have imagined, one centered on dignity at work and the hidden toll of bullying.
Across Botswana, social media feeds filled with tributes, personal testimonies and calls for change. Strangers shared stories of silent struggles in offices, turning grief into a collective moment of reckoning. In death, Keaikitse became a symbol, not of activism in life, but of the urgent need to confront workplace cruelty.
The groundswell of emotion was striking for another reason, its scale. The wave of solidarity eclipsed the public response to last year’s campaign promoting ratification of international standards on workplace violence and harassment. That effort, backed by unions and government, had sought to build momentum around global protections, yet it was the personal story of one man that ultimately stirred the deepest national reflection.
On 1st May 2025, labour bodies including the Botswana Federation of Trade Unions and the Botswana Federation of Public Sector Unions joined government ministries to promote the ratification of ILO Convention No. 190 (C190) on violence and harassment in the world of work.
Adopted in 2019, C190 is the first international labour standard to recognise the right of everyone to a world of work free from violence and harassment, including gender-based violence. It applies to all workers in all sectors – formal or informal, public or private – and promotes an inclusive and gender-responsive approach. C190 provides the first international definition that includes bullying and ‘mobbing’ under the umbrella of ‘violence and harassment.’ Its harm -based approach focuses on the effect on the victim (psychological, physical, or economic harm) rather than requiring proof of the perpetrator’s intent. It clarifies that even a single occurrence of unacceptable behavior can constitute harassment; it does not always have to be a repeated pattern to be illegal.
Thay 2025 unions’ May Day campaign was organized purposeful and policy driven, yet its message resonated most powerfully only now, refracted through the human story unfolding this week.
For many, the contrast is telling. Policies and conventions may set the framework for safer workplaces, but it is lived experience, and loss that moves hearts. Keaikitse’s name has become shorthand for conversations families are having at dinner tables, colleagues are having on corridors and leaders are being pressed to address.
In the quite after the funeral, the question lingering in the national mood should be whether this moment of unity can translate into lasting change. If it does, the legacy of a man who never set out to lead a movement may be measured not in the attention his death drew, but in the workplaces that become kinder because of it.
As of February 2026, Botswana had not yetratified the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Violence and Harassment Convention, 2019 (No. 190). However, the government has recently prioritized its ratification and is actively working with stakeholders to complete the process.
The government has included protections against workplace violence and harassment-aligned with C190-in recent legislative efforts, such as a new Bill aimed at protecting fundamental worker rights.