Francistown
District
Francistown has approximately 100,000 inhabitants ( Census 2011), the second largest city of the South African state Botswana and the capital of the North - East District. It is located about 450 kilometers north of the capital, Gaborone.
History
The settlement of the region dates back 80,000 years, as here already ancestors of the San lived.
In the 1860s, the region experienced an initial boom, was found to be gold. The Englishman Daniel Francis, after whom the city is named, acquired in 1869 the mining rights of the indigenous Matabele and founded the Tati Concessions.
Today Francistown was from 1897. Until independence of Botswana in 1966 the city was the supply center for the Tati Concessions and smaller gold mines in the region. With independence, the city became a hub for trade with Zimbabwe and Zambia. Until about 1990, the city moved to farms, which circumvented the sanctions against the South African apartheid here.
Economy
In the slaughterhouses of Francistown, a large part of the specifications for the export cattle is slaughtered. Resident are still clothing, knitwear, footwear, textile ceramic and chemical industries.
As part of the service economy is flourishing especially the transport sector. The large hinterland which extends over sparsely populated areas to Zimbabwe, Zambia and in the central Kalahari, provides for many small and large traders.
2006, in Francistown and the automobile manufacturers Harper Sports Cars its headquarters, which was then shifted in the same year from the market for strategic reasons.
Tourism
Francistown hardly offers tourist attractions and there are no buildings from the colonial period to visit. However, a small museum is operated, which provides information on the people of Botswana Kalanga. The Makgadikgadi salt pans and the Tuli Block, with its many wild animals are easily accessible from here.