SUN OUTING

The commemorative structure Lobatse is one of the ghost town’s most underrated tourist attractions. Despite this, it carries history and is the best place to learn about and experience the life of the late anti-apartheid stalwart. The humble structure was a safe house and transit route for anti-apartheid ‘comrades’ who lived there on their way to neighbouring countries such as Zambia, for training or to flee from the apartheid government.

The place, confirmed to be a national monument by the Botswana Museum a few years ago, is located in a convenient part of the buzzing Peleng township. Background on Fish Keitseng: Ntwaesele “Fish” Keitseng was born in 1919 and passed on in 2005. Keitseng was a Motswana trade union activist and politician. He was one of the defendants of the 1956 Treason Trial in South Africa. Following his expulsion from South Africa, Keitseng organized a network of safe routes for thousands of African National Congress activists heading north. He was also a prominent leader of the opposition inside Botswana.

Several freedom fighters were hosted and sometimes rustled into this Safe House en route to and from training camps and other strategic visits to the North – mostly in Zambia. In the late 2000s, Samora Machel’s family bought the family a home in Thema and spearheaded plans to turn the Peleng house into a commemorative structure. It is currently welcoming and an interesting piece of architecture and anyone who is interested can walk in and look at pictures on the wall and go through other memorabilia from the time.