Kgatleng District

Kgatleng District sits 40 kilometers from Gaborone—close enough that residents commute to the capital for work, far enough that the BaKgatla people maintain distinct identity. This proximity defines everything: the district preserved its tribal boundaries from the 1890s, but Gaborone's gravity is pulling it into orbit as bedroom community.

The BaKgatla claimed this territory when British administrators asked Tswana chiefs to mark their lands in the 1890s. Compared to BamaNgwato's vast Central District, Kgatleng is tiny—about 7,960 km², smallest of the tribal territories. The capital Mochudi, founded in 1871, sits on rocky outcrops where defensive position mattered more than agricultural potential. For a century, the district functioned as self-contained unit: cattle posts, fields of sorghum, kgotla assemblies under the chief's authority. The 1966 independence barely registered—Gaborone was being built, but it felt distant.

That changed in the 1980s-1990s as Gaborone exploded from diamond wealth. The capital needed workers but lacked affordable housing. Mochudi, 40km away on good tarmac, became the logical overflow. Commuter patterns emerged: wake in Mochudi, work in Gaborone, return at night. The district's economy shifted from local subsistence to metropolitan integration. By 2000, more Kgatleng residents worked outside the district than within it. The BaKgatla chief still presides over kgotla, but his decisions matter less than Gaborone's planning commission.

By 2025, Kgatleng District holds about 100,000 people (2022 census: 96,000), many in Mochudi's expanding perimeter. The district exhibits classic satellite-strategy: housing developments market themselves as "close to Gaborone but with traditional atmosphere," preserving just enough tribal character to feel distinct while functioning as suburb. The kgotla still meets, but attendance drops—young people schedule lives around Gaborone jobs, not village assemblies. Agriculture declined to subsistence levels; the district imports food like the capital does.

By 2026, Kgatleng faces questions of commensalism versus parasitism: does the relationship benefit both sides, or does Gaborone extract labor while exporting housing costs and congestion? The BaKgatla boundaries remain legally distinct, administratively separate, culturally acknowledged—but functionally, Mochudi is becoming what Soweto was to Johannesburg: the place where people sleep who work in the city. Capture doesn't require annexation. The district that preserved its identity for 130 years may lose it through commute patterns alone.