Ramotswa is a village in South-East District of

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

, southwest of the capital of Gaborone. The population was 27,760 in 2011 census. It is the tribal capital of the BaLete, an ethnic majority springing from the Nguni tribe. Ramotswa's main industry is a wheat flour mill. The village also manufactures metal products.

Kgosi A (; ) is the title for a hereditary leader of a Batswana and South Africa peoples tribe. Usage The word "kgosi" is a Setswana term for "king" or "chief". Various affixes can be added to the word to change its meaning: adding the prefix ''di- ...

Mosadi Seboko of Ramotswa is the first woman to serve as a

paramount chief A paramount chief is the English-language designation for a king or queen or the highest-level political leader in a regional or local polity or country administered politically with a Chiefdom, chief-based system. This term is used occasionally ...

. Seboko took on her role as a village leader and representative to the

House of Chiefs A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air ...

after her brother Kgosi Seboko II died in 2000. Her presence in the house of chiefs was hailed as a victory for

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

in southern

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. The nearby hamlet of Otse is the site for Moeding College, originally a colonial secondary school and a school for the disabled run by the Campbill Rankoromane Community educational center. Police XI, Botswana Premier League champions for 2006, are also based in Otse. The

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

is semi-arid, vegetation is a tree and shrub

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

. Only a fifth of the area is farmed but the density of cattle and goats and sheep is high. Otse is overlooked by cliffs from which a colony of vultures are easily visible on most days. On the outskirts of village lies Mothubakwane ward, where a prominent figure Tlotlo Oepeng lives. Other notable places include Siga ward, home to Killer Giants the local football club, Lesetlhana ward housing the central business district and Taung village where the industry lies. When The BaLete first settled in Ramotswa remains a topic of much debate, as the local history is traditionally an oral one as with a lot of African villages and towns where the 'infrustructure of urban development' is new. It however remains beyond dispute that residents of Ramotswa and surrounding areas have contributed much to the development of the region, and often bravely so in the context of the towns proximity to the much more 'in the public eye' towns and cities of South Africa. There has seemingly always been and continues to be a unique blend of the very modern even in terms of advanced technologies and the firmly 'locally old fashioned' in terms of lifestyle, as one might expect of a town in such close proximity to a capital of a country still largely in good standing (at least at last check) in the eyes of the world.

Notable natives and residents

* Mosadi Seboko, Motswana chief of the Balete people in

* Donald Thobega, football player * Ofentse Nato, football player

References

* {{Authority control Populated places in Botswana South-East District (Botswana) Botswana–South Africa border crossings