Archelaus Tsoebebe

Archelaus Moleleki Tsoebebe (29 January 1904 – 1986) was a Motswana politician of Sotho descent. He was a co-founder of the Botswana Democratic Party, which he represented in the National Assembly of Botswana from 1965 to 1969. He served in the Cabinet of Botswana as the Minister of Labour and Social Services.

Biography Archelaus Moleleki Tsoebebe was born to a Sotho family on 29 January 1904 at the Mafube Mission in the Matatiele District of the Cape Colony. He graduated from school in 1920 and trained as a teacher at the Mvenyane Institution from 1922 to 1924 and at Lovedale from 1925 to 1926. He then taught at Lovedale from 1927 to 1928 before attending Fort Hare from 1929 to 1931. He then moved to the Bechuanaland Protectorate, where he worked as a principal from 1932 to 1938. He founded the African Teachers' Association in 1937, and he founded the Bechuanaland Civil Servants' Association after joining the civil service in 1949.

Tsoebebe was a prominent political figure of the Bechuanaland Protectorate while it was under British control. In 1959, he offered his support to the protectorate's first major political party, the Bechuanaland Protectorate Federal Party. He was elected to the Bamangwato Tribal Council in 1960. serving for three years. He was awarded the Presidential Order of Honour in 1968, and his term ended in 1969. Tsoebebe had little political involvement thereafter, and he died in Mahalapye in 1986.