Palapye Main Kgotla

Palapye Main Kgotla is the principal kgotla, the customary court and community meeting place, of Palapye in the Central District of Botswana. Government of Botswana guidance describes the kgotla as the tribal court where community members meet to discuss, deliberate and make decisions on issues that affect the community, and to share information. A meeting there needs the chief's permission, requested verbally or in writing. The kgotla also sits as a court: civil and criminal cases within its warrant jurisdiction may be tried there. Civil matters are reported to the kgotla directly, registered, and heard on a set date before the kgosi with both parties present; criminal matters are reported to the Botswana Police Service. The same guidance gives kgotla office hours as 07:30 to 16:30, Monday to Friday, except public holidays. A kgotla is usually headed by the village chief (kgosi) or a headman. Larger settlements have ward kgotlas as well as a main kgotla. Decisions are traditionally reached by consensus, and the custom that no one may interrupt a speaker is often cited as a root of Botswana's consultative public life. Palapye lies on the A1 highway and the railway between Gaborone, about 240 km to the south, and Francistown, about 170 km to the north-east, and had 52,398 residents at the 2022 census. Phalatswe, or Old Palapye, was the Bangwato capital under Khama III from 1889 until 1902, when the capital moved to Serowe; its ruins lie about 20 km south-east of the present village, near Malaka. The Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST), which took its first students in 2012, is at Palapye, and the Morupule power stations are nearby. Meeting days, the presiding kgosi and a direct telephone number have not been published online; asking locally before travelling is advisable.

F42H+72C, Palapye, Botswana
Palapye

22°32′58″S 27°7′39″E