Main Mall’s resilience, sturdiness in the face of stiff competition
Ryder Gabathuse | Wednesday December 3, 2025 14:58
The Mall’s sturdiness has helped it stand the test of time, even with glaring stiff competition, especially with the advent of the development of modern malls like Airport Junction, Game City, River Walk, Molapo Crossing Mall, Sarona City Mall, The Fields Mall, and Sebele Mall.
There are satellite malls across the city of Gaborone and its environs that provide an extended service to the ever-growing Gaborone city. Frantically, at some stage, the Main Mall painted a picture of a deserted Mall despite its fighting spirit to maintain reasonable patronage.
Gaborone’s growth is supported by the sprawling areas of Tlokweng, Mochudi, Molepolole, Mogoditshane (the biggest urbanising village in the country), Lobatse, Kanye and other satellite villages, which feed their numbers into a fast-growing capital city.
Today, many people have fond memories of visiting the Main Mall in their childhood, making it a nostalgic destination. Overall, the Main Mall’s unique blend of history, culture and community spirit makes it a fascinating destination to explore in Gaborone. It has its aesthetic appeal and uniqueness, a tapestry woven with countless events and moments.
Main Mall provides solace to hordes of unemployed members of the society who ply their trade in the informal sector to make ends meet.
Local artisans selling handmade crafts along the length and breadth of the mall provide a glimpse into Botswana’s rich heritage. There is a variety of dining options serving both local and international cuisine. The mall offers a blend of traditional shops and modern stores, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in local culture while enjoying a diverse shopping experience. Hanging from metal support stands are ready-made shirts, dresses and skirts cut from German prints (or Jeremane in the vernacular) of various colours considered to be the national dress for women, especially and traditional leather sandals. Metallic and plastic bangles, leather headgears and doeks are also expansively displayed, leaving traditional enthusiasts drooling or slobbering for a pick. People are literally spoiled for choice.
From the eastern side of the mall lies the Gaborone City Council (GCC), a municipality in charge of the capital, a place where City Mayor, Oarabile Motlaleng, fellow councillors and technocrats sit and make decisions about the capital city.
From the far end, the picture that emerges in the heart of the Main Mall is akin to a busy marketplace offering a plethora of goods and services. It’s a place of hope for even the hopeless members of our beleaguered society at a time when the national economy is on its knees because our diamond-reliant economy is not performing well.
Gazebos of many colours offer a long multi coloured canopy in the distance that the eyes can see. It is, however, the Bank Gaborone inscribed gazebos that dominate the skyline of the Main Mall. In the morning, the air is pregnant with the fresh smell of food as women and men ready a quick and light breakfast targeting government and private sector employees or simply those who patronise the Mall from offices encircling the mall, especially passers-by.
Almost every form of service is available from the informal sector in front of established stores like Spar Supermarket and others. Established food chain stores like Kentucky Fried Chicken, Quatro’s, Debonairs Pizza and Nandos are some of the service providers in the food market.
At the top of Spar Supermarket lies a prominent restaurant, the Main Deck restaurant. Traditional foods like mokwetjepe (a mix of beef and entrails or offal), phaphatha, fat cakes, and French fries form the basis of early morning supplies in the open market. At Tshepho’s or Motshephula’s place, long queues have become a permanent feature. It brings together people from various backgrounds for their breakfast needs, especially traditional food enthusiasts. Motshephula has been a crowd puller for years now, with his family business that has been bringing food to his table.
Seabe Motlogelwa’s Purfect Roast Kofi is another attractive site where people generally sit for a variety of coffee and hot beverage needs. It seems this is the people’s favourite spot, and the youthful Motlogelwa allows people to sit around his joint just for relaxation and catch up on current issues.
Serowe-born cobbler Thuso Molelekwa does not only concentrate on the job that draws him to the mall daily. He mainly repairs shoes and other leatherworks for a living. He has been plying his trade for years now, and a pile of shoes in front of him tell its own story.
He also mans a social spot commonly known as ‘Freedom Square’ where men from different political beliefs and soccer affiliations congregate to discuss their favourite, political and current soccer developments. This informal gathering is typical of what used to be called ‘Radio Mall’. From Mondays to Saturdays, Molelekwa hosts soccer and political enthusiasts to dissect pertinent issues.
Size 10 is another food outlet that specialises in traditional cuisine, and it’s one of the must go to places in the Main Mall, just on the side of the road leading to the Gaborone Central Police Station from the traffic lights in front of the Gaborone City Council, facing westwards. The Main Mall is bordered by other service providers like optometrists, dentists, pharmacies, hair salons, music shops, electronic and ICT shops and of course, the Main Mall post office stands out a short distance from the sprawling Cresta President Hotel, a prestigious facility that provides hospitality services. If you have an ailing watch, you are sure it will be quickly repaired before you depart the mall. Just like a pair of shoes giving you problems, Molelekwa will give it a quick fix. Towards the Absa bank, ladies are fixing up troublesome clothing (sewedress), showing a variety of services that the mall provides instantly.
Due to its busy nature, the Main Mall houses five commercial banks: Absa, Standard Chartered Bank, First National Bank of Botswana, Bank Gaborone and BBS Bank, amongst others. As if this was intentional, five commercial banks (Bank Gaborone, Absa, First National Bank and BBS and another branch of Standard Chartered Bank) are located just a stone’s throw from each other, providing a convenient choice for consumers. There is also the National Development Bank, which has been a long-standing resident of the mall for years, just like its neighbour, the Zambian High Commission. Mobile money services, which are galore in the Main Mall, extend banking services to the mall’s patrons who, during the day, come in their numbers.
For the God fearing, the Main Mall provides easy access to mainline churches such as Trinity Church, Assemblies of God, Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Church and others. Mascom Wireless headquarters is based in the Main Mall as well. The Main Mall also provides an easy passageway to the aging Princess Marina Hospital, National Museum and Art Gallery, University of Botswana, the National Stadium, amongst others. The old CBD, which houses Parliament and government offices, is just a stone’s throw from the mall. Motor vehicles of different colours decorate and occupy almost all the available parking spaces in the Mall, making accessibility into the area so difficult and inconvenient.
Parking marshals kitted in all sorts of colours (yellow, lime, orange and others) complement the colours of the vehicles they marshal and have found an opportunity to squeeze cars into the already crammed parking lot for a fee. It started off with a few boys and young men who make up the bulk of Botswana’s unemployed youth, estimated at about 38%. As vehicles pull off into the main mall, the parking marshals fight for cars with a promise to keep an eye on them until the owner returns, with a fee, of course.
Life in a city like Gaborone with a population of over 246,325 people is not easy and will never be easy. At least from Monday to Saturday, it’s hardly easy to find a parking space here. Interestingly, after hours, the Mall becomes the most deserted with plenty of parking space and less movement of people as the mall goes to bed quite early, a sign also that it probably targets the working class.
From east to west, south and north, the paved open space in the mall is fully utilised by the informal sector operators who sell everything from airtime, seeds, candies, your traditional fruits like moroja, mmilo and mpswapswa (pre-cooked maize) and a variety of wares including traditional medicines.
To the older generation, like Kagiso Sekokonyane, the Speechwriter at the Office of the President, the Main Mall evokes nostalgia and a sense of community. Many older residents like him have fond memories of visiting the mall during their youth, and for them it remains a spot for socialising and catching up with friends. The Mall’s historical significance and traditional shops also appeal to older generations. Sekokonyane was born and bred in Pilikwe village, just on the outskirts of Palapye and spent the early years of his childhood there.
After completing secondary school and National Service or Tirelo Sechaba, he was admitted to the University of Botswana. As a newbie to the city, he had to quickly adapt to life in the city from his rural home and Moeng College with a moniker, ‘Pachanga’, because of its rural appeal.
“The main attraction for some of us who were new in the place was the Main Mall, which is a stone’s throw from the university campus. So, we would always walk from the campus to the Mall. On our lucky days, we would board a combi by the Mosque taxi stop to the mall,” reminisces Sekokonyane, who is also known as Seputla because of his relationship with soccer. He vividly remembers those days when the Mall was the melting pot of activities. “We used to frequent the Main Mall for various activities such as shopping for clothes and food. There used to be a popular food outlet called Kings Restaurant, which served fish and chips.
Over time, the outlet died a natural death; its space is currently occupied by a clothing shop.” One major place of activity in the early days was the Capitol Cinema. The building that housed the cinema was later demolished to pave the way for the one that currently hosts the Ministry of Water and Human Settlement, as well as First National Bank of Botswana.
“The building really gave the Main Mall a facelift as a number of the buildings are weathered by time. The current buildings hosting Absa and Standard Chartered banks have also, over time, experienced facelifts, which gives the Main Mall a new lease of life,” he quips. “President Hotel has also, over time, got a facelift.”
With the development of the Central Business District (CBD), some businesses vacated their offices in the Main Mall. The other landmark place that has stood the test of time is the Botswana Book Centre. “We used to frequent the bookstore to buy newspapers, the main one being the Sowetan newspaper from South Africa. At that time, a number of us were die-hard supporters of the two big teams in that country (Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs). We would queue for the papers, as it would at times be delivered late. Sometimes you would come and find it sold out. The journey back to UB would be quite long, and you would have to scrounge around the campus to look for the newspaper from those who you would suspect had managed to get a copy of the newspaper.”
Another interesting place for Sekokonyane was a sports shop owned by the late Ishmael Bhamjee. That was where they got their apparel for their sports activities. There was also a famous Setlhare just in front of Chicken Bhamjee’s shop. This was a meeting place for football ‘analysts’.
“As a scribe, the place became a source of news because that was where you would get a hint of developments at the various teams. It would start as speculation, but in no time, the news would be confirmed as true. The tree has since been brought down,” Sekokonyane told Mmegi. “The Main Mall has not lost much in terms of activity as the government enclave still feeds it with people who throng it to get their essentials, more especially during lunch time during working days.” For the younger generation, the Main Mall holds different meanings. For the young, Main Mall is a vibrant hub for socialising, entertainment and shopping. It is a place to hang out with friends, grab a bite to eat and enjoy the lively atmosphere. The Mall’s arcade games and food options are popular amongst younger crowds.
Timothy Lewanika is Mmegi/The Monitor newspapers’ business and features writer and a youthful member of the news team. He first came to know the Main Mall during his early days as a University of Botswana student.
On weekends, when the lecture classes halted and the university turned mute, it was for him to take short walks from UB down to the Main Mall.
First intrigued by the name “Main Mall”, Lewanika’s mind could but wonder what’s so main about the Mall. “My first sight of the mall was captivated by the rows of old buildings, the buzz of vendors calling out to customers to pass by their stalls,” he quickly reminisced. “What fascinated me most was how Main Mall seemed to preserve the memory of erstwhile Gaborone and Botswana. I loved that sense of continuity, the feeling that I was brushing up against fragments of a former GC that existed long before I arrived.”
Now working a stone’s throw away from the Main Mall, it is a place to stroll for the young journalist, “away to when work becomes mind blogging.”
In 1986, at the age of 19, Selebi-Phikwe-based Tshwarelo Hosia, chief education officer, was so foolhardy as to accept an invitation from his elder brother to visit him in Gaborone. The surprise invitation came at the closing stage of term two in his fourth year at the prestigious mountain College of Moeng. His usual routine of spending the school vacation at his ancestral land of Chadibe village was suddenly interrupted.
The opportunity to visit Gaborone was the most sought-after, yet, in his case, it was met with mixed feelings.
“I had no prior exposure to the hustle and bustle of life in a great city. A sojourn to the unknown city world from my comfort zone - the peaceful, quiet and serene background of 19-year-old rural experiences was one of the rarest and boldest undertakings a boy of my age could make at the time,” he reminisces with nostalgia.
What was supposed to generate euphoria and excitement sent a chilling sensation down his spine. He needed guidance to navigate the way to his new destination. Luckily, he boarded a midnight southbound express train in Palapye in the company of a group of students from Moeng and elsewhere.
Hosia’s closest travelling companions were Mpho Dingalo and Joseph Nkitseng. Already, they were familiar with the ins and outs of the city. After travelling for over six hours, the Rhodesian-owned train finally halted at what he was told was Gaborone station.
Navigating the way through a sea of speeding automobiles and fast-paced, overcrowded people was his immediate nightmare. His friend Nkitseng became the guide and anchor of strength as they walked from the railway station across the busy road, first to his family’s compound sandwiched by the Main Mall and African Mall, and later, he assisted Hosia to board a taxi to the Mogoditshane military (BDF camp), where his brother was residing.
“The one thing that attracted my attention most, apart from a sea of cars meandering endlessly from one end to the other, was the magnificent vista - the Orapa House located a stone’s throw from the railway line and casting my eyes far north I could see another towering reddish structure called BBS House.”
The Orapa House, at the time, was the tallest building he had ever seen. The two aesthetically beautiful structures defined the city of Gaborone. “Apart from the two buildings, the Main Mall was the hub of the city, a beacon of hope and inspiration.
The best shopping and socialising centre for people from all walks of life,” remembers the Selebi-Phikwe-based educationist-cum-columnist for Mmegi. He added: “There was no other shopping and socialising centre that could rival and surpass the Main Mall.”
To him, a visit to Gaborone would not be considered complete without a shopping spree or tour of the Main Mall. The African and BBS malls, albeit equally important, Hosia feels, were junior in terms of stature. The Main Mall used to pride itself on hosting the headquarters of the then ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) at Tsholetsa House and directly opposite was the headquarters of diamond mining giant, Debswana, before it relocated.
On the other side of this building is one of the Mall’s longest residents in the British High Commission, and its neighbour, the Nigerian Embassy. The Main Mall’s incessant facelift continues to give it a new lease on life and attracts the sliding patronage to the city’s oldest mall, hence young patrons like journalist Lewanika mingle with older patrons Sekokonyane and Hosia, amongst others.