- Title: BOTSWANA: ONE OF WORLD'S SMALLEST CAPITALS -- CABORONE EXPANDS STEADILY.
- Date: 2nd January 1975
- Summary: 1. GV PULL BACK TO GV Suburbs of Gaborone 0.08 2. LV ZOOM IN TO GV Arts Centre 0.16 3. GV Civic Centre 0.21 4. GV Exterior Princess Marian Hospital 0.24 5. SV Hospital sign 0.27 6. SV Children on bed PAN across ward 0.34 7. GV Nurse along corridor 0.42 8. LV Students entering university building 0.46 9. GV Exte
- Embargoed: 17th January 1975 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: GABORONE: BOSWANA
- Country: Botswana
- Reuters ID: LVA9JPUNTJWYM6PHJ2MGYND5TJFQ
- Story Text: One of the world's smallest and youngest capital cities, Botswana's Gaborone with about 25,00 people, is expanding steadily.
Gaborone consisted of little more than a rail station and hotel six years age. The administrative headquarters for the former British Protectorate of Bechuanaland was in Mafeking, South Africa, until February 1965.
New commercial and public buildings have since been sprouting in the capital. It new has an air-conditioned cinema, three modern hotels, a general hospital, a university, supermarkets and shops. Most buildings are constructed on contemporary Western lines.
It has been said the capital resembles a smalldor???itory town, designed by a cautious planning committee.
The expansion of the capital is, perhaps, a reflection of the country's economic growth.
In 1972, the government had its first budget surplus, a product mainly of the mining industry. Minerals are the country's major natural resources - including diamonds, copper, nickel, coal, brine and others.
The mining industry is financed largely by foreign companies, as Botswana still lacks capital reserves and skilled manpower.
SYNOPSIS: One of the world's tiniest capital cities -- Gaborone, which became Botewana's new capital eight years ago. Until nineteen-sixty-five, the former administrative headquarters for the colonial government was Mafeking, South Africa. New public and commercial buildings have since been sprouting in the capital.
One of the new buildings is the Princess Marina Hospital, Botewana's largest, which was officially opened in nineteen sixty-six. caters for the capital's twenty-five thousand people and is the country's only general hospital.
Botswana's only university - the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland - has about five hundred students mostly form the neighbouring countries, including Rhodesia and South Africa.
Buildings in Gaborone planned carefully. Most of them are built along contemporary Western lines. It now has an air-conditioned cinema, three modern hotels and many super-markets and shops. Six years ago, Gaborone consisted of little more than a railway station end a hotel.
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