OBITUARY
                     Professor E.S. Moloto, M.A., D.litt.      et Phil.
Professor    Ernest Sedumedi Moloto was born in the Rustenburg district of the
Transvaal Province in 1917. He was educated at various schools in the Transvaal and
Orange Free State before completing the Matriculation examination in 1938. In 1939
he commenced hIs undergraduate            studIes at Fort Hare then known as the South
African Native College.      After graduating he became Headmaster at Ofentse Primary
School which he developed            Into a secondary and teacher training institute.
Subsequently, he became Inspector of Schools, and for a brief spell was seconded to
the Umversity of the North as Lecturer in Sotho languages. Thereafter, he became
Chief Inspector of Schools and then Chief Education Planner for Bophuthatswana.
In 1976 he joined the staff of the UniversIty College of Botswana as Professor and
Head of the Department of African Languages and Literature.              He held the following
univer.sity degrees and certificates:    BA (J 9~2), U.E.D. (J 9~3), B.A. Honours (J 962), M.A.
(I 96~), D.Litt. et Phil. (I970) all from the University of South Africa. In 197~ he read
Linguistics at the University of Essex (England).
His extra-curricular     activities    included Chairmanship of the Tswana Language
Committee     which produced the current (1981) Standard Orthography; Chairman of
Botswana Secondary Schools Setswana Language Panel, Chairman of the Botswana
National Cultural     Council and first Chairman of the World University ServIce
(Botswana).
The six years that the late Professor Moloto spent at the University of Botswana were
years of tremendous growth and development.              He transformed a weak department,
threatened by a lack of staff and leadershIp into a strong cohesive Unit with clearly
defined goals and objectIves.            Among other things, he established          the M.A.
programme, for a long time the only post-graduate               programme on the Botswana
campus, and left the Department with two members of hIs own staff havmg qualified
under hIS own direct supervISIon and a third near completing his M.A.
Also whIle at the UniverSIty of Botswana the late Professor Moloto served as
examIner for the Cambridge School CertifICate Examination in Setswana, external
examIner in oral literature for the degree B.A. Honours (Unisa), UNESCO Consultant
on Setswana Language and Culture.            He published Tswana school grammars, Tswana
translations of VariOUSschools texts e.g. m SOCial studIes, science, religion, etc. He
published numerous articles on ImgUlstlc and literary topICS               in    international
journals, and re' .ewed many malluscrlpts for various publishing houses.
The late Prof. Moloto reSigned from the servIce of the University of Botswana and
jomed VISta UniverSity m 1983. He died suddenly on 28th May J 98~.
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