Keable Mote was born in 1898 in Leribe, Basutoland Lesotho. He was educated at Pietersburg in the Transvaal. He joined the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU) in 1924 and subsequently became provincial secretary for the Orange Free State. With Clements Kadalie, he was one of the first Africans prosecuted under the Native Administration Act of 1927, which made it an offense to promote "hostility" between the races. During the disintegration of the ICU in the late 1920s, he led a secession by branches in the northern Free State but later associated himself with Kadalie's Independent ICU. He was a participant at the conferences of the All African Convention (AAC) in 1935-1937.
