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 ...
.
The town has about 41,000 inhabitants and is situated along the main road between the capital
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 the second largest city
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 ...
.
Mahalapye has a bus station, a railway station, a couple of hotels and a market area with many shops and fast food restaurants, Water Shed mall is the latest attraction to those travelling from Gaborone to Francistown. It also has several petrol stations, some open 24 hours per day. Being situated on the edge of the
Kalahari
The Kalahari Desert is a large semiarid sandy savanna in Southern Africa covering including much of Botswana as well as parts of Namibia and South Africa.
It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal d ...
desert, the town and its local waterways are quite dry, except during the rainy season. In recent times, it has become a convenient stop-over town for travelers travelling to and from Gaborone.
This town is located on the
Tropic of Capricorn
The Tropic of Capricorn (or the Southern Tropic) is the circle of latitude that contains the subsolar point at the December (or southern) solstice. It is thus the southernmost latitude where the Sun can be seen directly overhead. It also reach ...
. Thus at approximately 13:11 hours on 21 December, or at solar noon on Summer Solstice, the sun will be directly overhead at this site. To mark this geographic feature there is a small monument just outside town on the 23rd parallel, or 23 degrees South of the equator. At this time the sun will be directly above this monument where the sun reaches its furthest point South. At this point there will be no shadow on the monument. The record high temperature ever registered in Mahalapye was . The lowest temperature registered in Mahalapye was .
The
Government of Botswana
The Government of Botswana often abbreviated as GOB, is the union government created by the constitution of Botswana having the executive, parliament, and the judiciary. The Seat of the Government is located in Gaborone, Botswana. The governme ...
. Retrieved on 26 March 2013.
Notable people
Actor, writer and playwright
Donald Molosi
Donald Leungo Gosego Molosi (born 11 December 1985) is an actor, writer and playwright from Botswana. Molosi debuted off-Broadway in 2010 as Philly Lutaaya in ''Today It's Me'' making him the first Motswana to perform off-Broadway. In 2011, M ...
was born in Mahalapye in 1985.
Duma Boko
Duma Gideon Boko (born 31 December 1969) is a Motswana politician and lawyer who is currently serving as the sixth President of Botswana since 1 November 2024 and as leader of the Umbrella for Democratic Change since 2012. He served as Leader of ...
, president of Botswana was born in Mahalapye in 1969.