A photo of Los Meicherry reaches social media

The ugly housing structures at Los Meicherry in Gaborone are still news worthy, exactly 45 years since the famous visit to it, Extension 14 and New Canada by members of the House of Chiefs, now Ntloyadikgosi. A picture of one of the match boxes type of houses said to have been taken at an area called Los Meicherry has recently found its way into some WhatsApp platforms including the Info&Broad Veterans as well as the Molefi Alumni. Info &Broad WhatsApp platform caters for former employees of the Department of Information and Broadcasting Services. In short, these are former government journalists and administration officers. Besides their professional duty, they have served this country at other different levels.

Some have served as diplomats representing Botswana at various countries, permanent secretaries, cabinet ministers and directors. The photograph was floated into this platform by one of its active members, Abram Magowe who keeps it alive. It was accompanied by a caption story telling the origin of Los Meichery. The caption was something like “the locals named them Los Machery-houses spanning around the ward of Selemela, now part of White City and Bontleng. Then the designs were striking scenery which had many foreign migrant builders of a new capital as its first tenants. Over Independence Avenue was the famous kwa Fleteng, a plush entertainment and drinking spot around Los Machery. Local guys used to lose their partners to foreign migrant workers around Los Machery, hence the name”. Independence Avenue used to be the longest street in Gaborone before the road starting from Orapa House traffic lights up to where it crosses the railway line was named Nelson Mandela in honour of South Africa’s first democratically elected president while he was still serving life sentence in prison.