I wish to express my utter anger and disgust at the demolition of the old Francistown Railway Station buildings to make way for a new set of offices to serve Botswana Railways – The reason being that the building is of great historical significance and was registered and Gazetted as a National Monument.
When Cecil Rhodes had his dream of building a railway line from Cape to Cairo the line reached Francistown on the 1st September 1897 on its way to Bulawayo. The first buildings were then constructed around that time.
I cannot imagine that these buildings could have been demolished just to make way for the new structures without any thought of retaining their historical value on the site. What is also of concern is that there is an old single room hexagonal red brick building with a ‘pointed’ roof situated near the BHC offices / Jubilee Hospital environs that served as the first clinic in the early 1900’s long before the dawn of Independence.
Since this building is situated along the railway line, close to the old dilapidated Railway housing complex I am not sure if it is on their property. I would not like to see this building also demolished like the Station building was to make way for new ‘developments’.
We owe it to future generations to preserve our heritage and the history, and this was ably captured by our First President, the Late Sir Seretse Khama when he said: “a nation without a past is a lost nation and, a people without a past, is a people without a soul.”
