Mahalapye: Ko diponeng

Something about the bulbs of the lights caused colours to appear different than they actually were and for the young Tshipe and his cohorts, this was a cause for fascination. Those very lights, the only ones outside of Lobatse in the whole of the then Bechuanaland, gave the village the nickname, "Ko Diponeng", the place of lights.

Looking at the many tarred roads lined with endless streets lights and every sort of shop from clothes stores to well stocked supermarkets to the robots and roundabouts of the now very modern Mahalapye, it is difficult to remember a time when a single light might be a topic of fascination for a young boy, but indeed that time was not that long ago since Mahalapye has only been a settlement since the 1920's.