Gaborone after Independence

A certain amount has been written about pre-Independence Gaborone – about the British settlement in 1890, about the Village, and about the establishment of the new capital. Very little, however, has been written about it in the immediate aftermath of Independence.

Nor has it been asked if subsequent developments served to validate the 1963 plan or perhaps to demonstrate how erroneous had been the assumptions on which it had been based. At first sight, the government’s decision to buy Broadhurst A farm and then in 1971 to commission a new Gaborone plan suggested that many of the original assumptions about the new town had indeed proved to be wrong. A mere eight year gap between one plan and another might confirm this point of view.

Clearly the new Gaborone grew much quicker than had been anticipated with the government itself recognising very early the need to acquire Broadhurst A.  The new plan was essentially residential, principally to embrace the newly obtained  farm area. But it is still not clear to me what triggered this new growth bearing in mind that this was neither industrially nor commercially related.

Editor's Comment
BDP primaries leave a lot to be desired

The BDP as a party known to have ample resources has always held its primaries well in time, but this time around that was not the case. The first leg of the primaries was held last weekend, with the final leg being billed for the coming weekend. This time around, the BDP failed to shine in its primary elections. The elections were chaotic; most if not all polling stations didn't open at the specified time of 6am. Loyal BDP members braved the...

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