More recently the proposed Palapye University appears to be destined to devolve into a technical college. Such occurrences lead one to wonder what it is about Palapye that causes these disappointments. Historians would say the same thing happened 109 years ago when Khama III decided against Palapye continuing as the Bangwato capital. By the King's decree, all Bangwato were told to pack what they could and dismantled a capital city after 13 years of occupation. 'In the 20th century they denied it capital status based on receding water resources. A hundred and nine years later they deny this place a university crown because of the financial recession', quips another critic.
In fact, the name 'Palapye' is a fake, being as it is, a colonial rendition from Phalatswe, "the place full of impalas". Indeed it was the capital of Khama III and his Bangwato empire between 1889 and 1902, after the Bangwato left Shoshong due to a water shortage and the need for strategic re-positioning for trade control. The capital of Phalatswe was named after the prominent hills north of the present day village of Malaka, on the north-west rim of the Tswapong Hills. The current prefix "Old" in the name refers to the ancient nature of the locale as a heritage site and simultaneously distinguishes it from the current town of Palapye, 35 kilometres to the west, which was a railway and trade station that served Khama III's capital.
