03 Sep 2015

Former Bobirwa Member Parliament now Bobonong constituency has died on August 31 at Bokamoso Private Hospital after he was involved in a road accident on August 8.

Mr James Jakoba Maruatona affectionately known as JJ was the third area MP after taking from the late Mr Walter Mosweu.

He served in Parliament for 15 years under the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) from 1989 and retired from his position in 2004. 

Family spokespersons Messers Gabriel and Lesole Maruatona said in an interview that the former MP died on the night of August 31 at Bokamoso Private Hospital where he was hospitalised from August 8 to his time of death, following an accident that also claimed the life of his wife who was buried on August 15.

After the accident, they noted, he was referred to Bokamoso by the Selebi Phikwe hospital. They described him as having gone through the ranks from a civil servant as a teacher, education secretary to a politician and MP under the BDP ticket.

The late Mr Maruatona according to his relatives started his primary education in Lesotho and enrolled for a teaching programme in Pietersburg now Polokwane in South Africa. 

He taught in Our Lady of the Desert Primary School in Francistown in 1961 to 1965.

He also attended courses at Cambridge Institute of Education for observation course in the United Kingdom and became education secretary. The late MP retired from civil service in 1979 and became specially elected councillor in 1984 and in 1989 became an MP until his retirement in 2004. 

Mr Ronald Kgathi one of the relatives said the late MP was very active in advocating for the developments of the constituency adding that he strongly called for the construction of the Rural Administration Centre in Bobonong. Ends