26 Oct 2017

Francistown turns 120 years this Saturday and it is of sentimental importance that the city and its people reflect on its most memorable tales of where it comes from and where it is headed. 

Amongst these, the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association (WNLA) story stands out in Francistown’s history as it contributed immensely to the development of the city.

The Native Labour Association was a company that established itself in Francistown in 1936 to recruit miners from Angola, Botswana, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia.

Evidence shows that the miners were processed in Francistown before being transported to the various South African mines via train.

Today, the city prides itself with the biggest commercial centre in Botswana prior to independence.

As part of the processing, the miners underwent medical examinations as well as being finger printed and registered with the South African Chamber of Mines.

While in Francistown, they were given basic clothing which included a heavy jacket that they were permitted to keep even after their contracts had ended.

After they had been processed and registered, the men were railed to Johannesburg in South Africa where they were distributed to different mines. 

The two trains travelling between Francistown and Johannesburg carried about 800 to 1 000 miners twice a week.

As a way to entice more recruits, the miners heading home were given mirrors, playing cards, cigarettes and rock candy as promotional items to encourage others to sign up.

The miners on transit made a huge contribution to the economy of Francitown and during its prime time, WNLA was able to employ about 600 people and processed about 100 000 miners a year.

The establishment resorted to building the Francistown airport in the mid-50s in order to fly the recruits between Francistown and their homes and the airport is currently under the care of the Botswana Defence Force (BDF).

The establishment of the airport contributed to WNLA’s demise following a horrific plane crash involving Malawian miners heading to Blantyre in 1974. 

The aircraft crashed just as it took off, killing most of its passengers and following the incident, the company was prohibited from continuing to recruit and doing business in Malawi. 

The labour association suffered the consequences as miners from Malawi were in high demand because they were smaller than miners from other Southern African countries, which probably meant they could slide down mine shafts effortlessly as compared to other miners. 

It is well documented that Malawians accounted for over half of WNLA’s recruits and because of that, the company was forced to close down its operations in Francistown when they could no longer use miners from Malawi.

Apart from the old Francistown airport, the native labour association built the Francistown club and operated an outdoor cinema for residents. 

The city of Francistown was mainly sustained by the operations of WNLA, which also built the original road to Kasane, Maun and Shakawe and brought the recruits by truck to Francistown.

Francistown originated as a mining town in the 19^th century and with that came increasing employment opportunities, which attracted many people from rural areas. 

The Tati Nickel Mining Company (TNMC) contributed largely to the development of the city and its community and with the closure of the mine in 2016 came the challenge of unemployment in the city. ENDS