From Bonnington Farm to Lingalibalele Street :: Mmegi Online

There is more to the Bonnington Farm Monument than the official version. There is also a story of museum archaeologist's excitement at discovering a letter written by one of the former owners, Dan Le Cordeur Sr in 1953, shedding tears of joy over the discovery, tracing the children of Le Cordeur, inviting his son to come to Botswana only for him to die three months later before a major appointment is fulfilled...

In Mogoditshane, immediately opposite Grand Palm hotel entrance and the Bonnington shopping mall stands two sets of silo quadrants and a ruined farm house. These were built by Dan Le Cordeur Sr. and his wife Rene a few years after purchasing the farm in 1944. Dan Le Cordeur Sr. was formerly from Capetown but his father was of French Huguenot descent.

Le Cordeur Sr. was a farmer, cattle baron and businessman who at one time owned the entire land from Broadhurst to the foot of Kgale Hill, at least 3 shops in Kgale, Gabane and what is now the Bonnington shopping mall. The site was listed as a National Monument in 2006 and the silos recently restored through the Adopt a Monument Strategy of the National Museum in a collaboration started with Plascon Freeworld, PG Timbers and BMB.

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