Not being a great soccer fan, it wouldn't have previously occurred to me that at all international matches played in Gaborone, the Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture automatically takes precedence over the City's Mayor. (Mmegi 20.10.11). On the other hand, I had known that the City administration is obliged to transfer to central government all the cash it has accrued not least from rates, instead of retaining it for its routine needs. Were a visitor to consider just those two small facts he/she might well conclude that Gaborone must be a rather odd sort of place. Indeed as years go by, it has become increasingly obvious that Gaborone's oddness is not just a minor characteristic - it is today something that gives it definition and its undoubtedly very strange character.
To suggest that so much about it is odd is to make a statement of the obvious. As the city begins its attempt to identify a distinguishing footprint, it may be the right moment to start converting what has previously been regarded as a weakness - this distinctive oddness - into a commercial , exploitable strength. How many other capital cities in the world can make a similar claim? There can't be many. But look around the rest of the country and its difficult to recognise any other settlement, super village, traditional town, rural/urban town, which has even begun to be as odd even though Francistown might want to make claims of its own.
