Mahalapye Railway Highlanders are a football club in the

Botswana Premier League The Botswana Premier League, currently known as the BTC Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level football league in Botswana. Organised by the Botswana Football Association, the league was formed in 1978 to replace the pre-indep ...

who play home games in

Molepolole Molepolole is a large village in Kweneng District, Botswana. The people who reside in Molepolole are called Bakwena, who are one of the eight major tribes in Botswana. The Bakwena Kgosi (Chief), Sebele I was among the three chiefs who went to En ...

, but are based out of

Mahalapye Mahalapye is a town located in the Central District of Botswana. The town has about 41,000 inhabitants and is situated along the main road between the capital Gaborone and the second largest city Francistown. Mahalapye has a bus station, a railw ...

. Mahalapye Railway Highlanders, previously Botswana Railway Highlanders, are the team of

Botswana Railways Botswana Railways (BR) is the national railway of Botswana. History Botswana Railways (BR) was established in 1987 when the government of Botswana bought out the Botswana-based sections of the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ). NRZ had been ...

, but the company's sponsorship only goes as far as transport and some sporting equipment. In 2015 Highlanders were 100% financed by the Railways corporation.

History

Highlanders were founded as a social club in 1987 by workers of Botswana Railways. In 2002 they were promoted to the first division for the first time, led by coach Tebogo Mokute. They were promoted to the top division Botswana Premier League for the first time for the 2012 season. Highlanders were relegated from the Botswana Premier league in 2016. They bounced back in the 2017-18 season: Highlanders were promoted to the 2018-19 Botswana Premier League after defeating Great North Tigers 1-0 in the second-last game of the season. Emmanuel Thakadu scored the goal which sent Highlanders back to the top flight two minutes from time, ensuring Highlanders won the 2017-18 First Division North title.

References

Football clubs in Botswana Railway association football teams {{Botswana-footyclub-stub