Ten Towns from the Zambezi to the Maloti, by Mine, Mission and Chief

Katima Mulilo was founded on 28 January 1935 when the administrative centre of the Caprivi Strip moved there from Schuckmannsburg. The 2023 count of 46,401 inhabitants is more than double its 2001 figure, and the Zambezi bridge opened in 2004 turned a border post into a trading boom town.

Tsumeb dates from 1905 and has been a mining town ever since. Between 1905 and 1996 its mine produced about 30 million tons of copper, lead and zinc ore, and at least 170 mineral species have been found there, 20 of them nowhere else on Earth.

Grootfontein began in 1885 when Boer families known as Dorsland trekkers settled and briefly founded the Republic of Upingtonia. Zinc and vanadium mines at Berg Aukas and Abenab once drove its economy, and the Hoba meteorite, the largest known on Earth at over 60 tons, lies 24 kilometers to the west.

Gobabis grew from a Rhenish mission station set up in 1856 by Friedrich Eggert. Today it is the capital of the Omaheke region, the heart of Namibian cattle country, and a stop on the Trans-Kalahari Corridor that carries goods between Botswana and Walvis Bay.

Mariental was founded in 1912 as a railway stop between Windhoek and Keetmanshoop and named for Maria, wife of the first colonial settler. It is the administrative capital of the Hardap region, had 18,494 inhabitants in 2023, and the nearby Hardap Dam supports irrigated farming.

Jwaneng grew up around the Jwaneng diamond mine, considered the richest in the world by content of gem quality diamonds. The 2022 census counted 18,784 residents, and the town runs its own town council apart from the surrounding Southern District.

Kanye is the traditional capital of the Ngwaketse people and the longest continuously occupied tribal capital in Botswana. It sits on hills that act as a barrier against the Kalahari sands, and its 2022 census population of 48,028 makes it the ninth largest village in the country.

Butha-Buthe in northern Lesotho was founded in 1884 so the local ruler could pay taxes without traveling to the more distant town of Hlotse. Its name means place of lying down, after the mountain to its north.

Quthing, also called Moyeni, is the southernmost town in Lesotho. It was established in 1877, abandoned during the Gun War of 1880 and rebuilt on its present site, and it is split into Lower Moyeni for commerce and Upper Moyeni for government.

Piggs Peak in northwestern Eswatini was founded around gold prospecting in 1884 and named for William Pigg, who found a gold reef there on 26 March that year. Forestry is now its main industry, and the Maguga Dam, completed in 2001 on the Komati River, lies about 12 kilometers south.