The New Rail Park Mall Pedestrian Bridge

Rail Park Mall in Gaborone
Rail Park Mall in Gaborone

It’s only recently that I discovered that Gaborone has acquired for itself a major, new townscape feature – the pedestrian bridge which links the combi/Angamia eastern side of the railway line with the Rail Park Mall on the west.

This handsome new bridge is now paired with the earlier, undistinguished and rather grotty bridge which takes pedestrians over the railway line to the bus rank. For many Gaborone residents the existence of this striking new bridge will come as a surprise – as indeed it did to me.  Despite the best intentions of the first planners in the early 1960s to create a colour blind non racial new capital and town, Gaborone today is more divided than most of us would care to admit. When the mail train ceased its journeying between Bulawayo, Francistown, Gaborone, Johannesburg and Cape Town the expatriate community changed its dependence patterns and shifted to a new reliance on travel by plane and by privately owned cars.

When it did so, it effectively abandoned the area around the railway station, which it no longer needed. The non-vehicle owning community promptly moved in. In an odd way, the creation of the new Railway Park Mall has highlighted this division in spectacular fashion.

Editor's Comment
Congratulations Anicia Gaothuse!

The contest had 10 beautiful young girls as finalists and unfortunately only one could wear the crown.The judges picked Anicia Gaothuse. To all those who feel their contestant should have won ahead of Anicia for whatever reason, hardly; the judges found Anicia to be the best among the best, so desist from disrespecting our newly crowned queen on social media or anywhere else, for that matter! Each of the 10 beautiful young women had supporters...

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