Bobonong is a town in the
Central 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 ...
80 km from
Selibe Phikwe town. Bobonong has a population of around 19,000. The
Babirwa tribe can be found in this town. The Botswana Pink semi-precious stones can be found in Bobonong region. The Babirwa are known for harvesting the mophane worm. The locals refer to the town as Bobcity or formerly Lekgarapeng, which was derived from the stoney landscape of the town.
Bobonong is the headquarters of the
Bobirwa
The Bobirwa Subdistrict is a jurisdiction in Botswana. It is populated by the Babirwa (Ba-Birwa) people who came from Transvaal in present-day South Africa.
History
Before Moshoeshoe and his nation of Lesotho, the Basotho people populated ...
Sub District and is an hour's drive from the
Tuli Block area where the
Northern Tuli Game Reserve is located. Mashatu and Tuli Safari Lodge have accommodation for tourists.
Bobonong has a Senior Secondary School (Matshekge Hill School) which is a catchment for Junior Secondary Schools in the Bobirwa Sub District. It has government offices including a Magistrates office, a primary hospital, police station, post office, library and a small town center. It also has a large shopping complex, which include big retail stores such as Choppies Supermarket and Saverite Supermarket. Bobonong also have a chain of hardware stores, furniture shops and even wholesalers.
Bobonong can be accessed from
Francistown
Francistown is the second-largest city in Botswana, with a population of about 103,417 inhabitants and 147,122 inhabitants in its agglomeration at the 2022 census. It is located in eastern Botswana, about north-northeast from the capital, Gabo ...
through Selibi Phikwe or from Gaborone via
Palapye
Palapye is a growing town in Botswana, situated about halfway between Francistown and Gaborone ( from Francistown and from Gaborone). Over the years its position has made it a convenient stopover on one of Southern Africa's principal north–so ...
both routes are tarred and branch off from the Main North South Highway which runs from Ramokgwebana to Ramatlabama.
It is a semi town with both traditional and modern housing structures with a reliable electricity supply as well as the standard ICT services including both land line and cellular services.
As a Sub District headquarters it has a cross sectional community and is served well by bus services from Tray Vrikeshor,
Gaborone
Gaborone ( , , ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Botswana, largest city of Botswana, with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its metropolitan area is home to 534, ...
and other areas of Botswana.
The
Lepokole Hills, a western prolongation of the
Matobo Hills
The Matobo National Park forms the core of the Matobo or Matopos Hills, an area of granite kopjes and wooded valleys commencing some south of Bulawayo, southern Zimbabwe. The hills were formed over 2 billion years ago with granite being forced t ...
in Zimbabwe, are located 15 km north of Bobonong. The last of the
San people
The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are the members of any of the indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures of southern Africa, and the oldest surviving cultures of the region. They are thought to have diverged from other humans 100,000 to 200 ...
in eastern Botswana lived in the hills and left more of their rock paintings in the caves and rocks.
Stone Age
The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...
tools and ancient pottery scattered around the hills are evidence of even earlier occupation.
References
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Populated places in the Central District (Botswana)
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