By Kabelo Mollo
I have been struggling to put words that make sense to my thoughts. Last week I learned of the untimely passing of my good friend Motselisi “Tsiddles” Khiba. A dynamic and pioneering young Mosotho whose loss came like a bolt from the sky.
I’ve been in something like a trance since hearing this most devastating news. It really struck like a hammer blow. What I know for sure is that parents shouldn’t have to bury their children. It’s unnatural. They especially shouldn’t have to bury 33 year olds.
“Tsiddles” as she was known to her many friends was doing some really phenomenal work in the cannabis space. A trained lawyer, she was really instrumental in the growth and development of what is a burgeoning industry in the rest of the world though I’m a little unsure of its prospects here in the majestic kingdom. She knew though, and she kept assuring me that once the regulatory framework was perfected there would be all sorts happening.
She was passionate about the industry and how it could catapult our small economy in to the stratosphere. Unlike me she wasn’t only a dreamer. She was also very much a doer! When we last spoke, about a fortnight before her unfortunate passing she was telling me about her intentions to read for her PhD. She was going to pass with flying colors and become an even more proper doyenne of knowledge.
She wasn’t only academic excellence. She was also a really bubbly, lively human with the quickest wit and sharpest tongue. The very epitome of dynamite coming in small packages. She was knee high to a grasshopper but often reprimanded me for making jibes at her height, in fact correcting me that in certain parts of the world she was average height. I don’t know those parts of the world, and I’m sure she didn’t either but her legal training made her sound believable.
Our last text interaction was us agreeing that there are some professions in the world that need to be reined in for their own good. She was jocular and witty as ever. Completely bursting with life.
I have been going through our text messages from as far back as 2017. Our conversations span every aspect of life. From social to political, from private and personal to amusing and even distasteful. They’re the kinds of conversations you have with your kinfolk. And in every interaction where I poke fun, she gives as good as she gets. What an absolute riot she was. I sent her a link to a study showing that the Corona virus was most likely to affect those who were vertically challenged, to which she responded “I don’t know why you’d send me This, it’s clearly not aimed at me”. I chuckled and cried simultaneously as I reread that chat.
It feels completely surreal. I’m told the realest moments tend to have that effect. I read a tribute written about her by a German colleague and friend who she saw on her recent travels to Europe and it is her clear her impact was felt all around the world. The young people have a phrase they use that I really like in times like This, and that is “she didn’t die, she multiplied”. I want this to be the unequivocal truth with regards to my friend “Tsiddles”.
I want the type of Mosotho she was to multiply. I want her work to continue and I have it on good authority that it will. I want each of us to embrace her spirit and run with it. When loss occurs I always think of my son. I’m always feeling like the poor guy got short changed for not having that person’s wisdom and guidance later on in life. It’s how I felt when my father passed and now I feel it again, JK II certainly deserved to have the mentoring and wise counsel of someone like Adv Tsiddles in the future.
Fortunately, we live in a technologically inclined world. I interviewed her on my show, and that recording can be found. She also had a YouTube channel of her own, and my former co-host and friend Bella Mokobori also featured her on her podcast series. So JK will at least have those archives to reference.
I am crestfallen, but I’m trying to take heart in a short impactful life, that was incredibly well lived. To her partner, her loving family and friends I wish you strength and healing. May the earth lay gently on her.
