City of Francistown
Francistown is a city in the North-Eastern zone of Botswana, near the Zimbabwean border (Ramokgwebana Border). The city was founded in 1897 when the railway line, which the British South Africa Company was constructing, reached Monarch on 1st September 1897.
The line was part of Cecil Rhodes’ dream of building a railway from Cape to Cairo and passed south of Nyangabgwe Hill because it was the shortest route to Zimbabwe’s Bulawayo. The development of the city was prompted by a 19th-century gold rush as Daniel Francis, an English Prospector from Liverpool, United Kingdom, acquired prospecting licenses in the region in 1869.
The settlement that was established thereafter, was called Francistown, named after Daniel Francis, who was also one of the founding directors of the Tati Concession which virtually owned most of the land in the area. In 1960, Francistown was declared a Township Authority (FTA) to conduct the affairs of the township.
At independence in 1966, the Francistown Town Council (FTC) was established for the governance and administration of the aforesaid Township. This was executed to secure and promote the health, order, and good governance of the Town. The FTA’s first Mayor was Honourable Paul Mincher.
In 1971, about 100, 000 acres of farmland were signed over to the Botswana Government by Tati Company Limited, and in 1973 the company handed over its mineral rights to the government. In 1997, when Francistown turned 100 years old, it was declared a city, whereas the Francistown Town Council (FTC) had to shift and transform into the Francistown City Council (FCC).
The first Mayor of the Francistown City Council was Honourable Motlatsi Molapisi. To date, the Council provides quality social services and physical infrastructural development to the community of Francistown through the implementation of government policies and programs.
The council does this in a practical manner through various departments to ensure proper service delivery. For the past decades, Francistown has been experiencing a period of rapid growth. This can be attributed to the growth of the commercial and industrial sectors in the city.
The city prides itself as the hub of commerce and industry in the northern part of Botswana and provides a linkage with our Southern African Development Community (SADC) neighbours such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Namibia. Thus, the city is geographically well-placed to enhance the socio-economic development of the SADC region. The city has great potential to accommodate various economic sectors such as heavy industries, agriculture, and tourism just to mention a few.
On that note, the Special Economic Zones Authority Botswana (SEZA) declared Francistown as a Mining and Logistics Hub in 2013. Moreover, land has been identified around Phillip Matante International Airport to accommodate this zone and processes are currently ongoing to actualize the Francistown Special Economic Zone Master Plan.
