A group led by Francis van Vuuren founded a football club as Mighty Tigers in 1961, at Gaborone, a settlement being prepared to become Botswana’s capital upon independence in 1966.
Club founders were largely workers in the Public Works Department (PWD); others were involved in the trade school at what later became the Botswana Institute of Administration and Commerce (BIAC) and were joined by students of St Joseph's College at Kgale and from 1965, Gaborone Secondary School (GSS).
The core of the team were PWD workers involved in the construction of roads in Gaborone ahead of independence.
1965 saw the official registration of the club, renamed “Township Rollers,” as Gaborone was then a small town (a Township). Club founders used Rollers compacting equipment in constructing Gaborone’s first internal roads.
An official logo was designed in 1965 by Rre Herbert Keaikitse from Kanye, featuring a map of early Gaborone roads, Rollers compacting equipment, a football, a soccer boot, the official club nickname “Tse Tala” (The Blues), and the club motto “Popa Popa e a Ipopa” (a Setswana saying about unity in molding oneself towards success).
The 1965 logo was re-branded in 2010 by Kennedy Motang.
Rollers made an impact in Botswana football in the 1960s and 1970s, coached by Mr. Cuthberth “CAR” Motsepe, who came from Pretoria, South Africa as a teacher at St Joseph’s College and then at GSS.
Rollers established a cross-town rivalry with Gaborone United. Led by administrators Francis van Vuuren and Mokhutshwane Sekgoma, and featuring players of the calibre of Freddie Modise, Clement “Captain Muller” Muthelesi, Morwalela “Pro” Seema, Geoffrey “Sliding” Matsila, Sola “Ace” Mokgadi, and goalkeeper Mchuu “City” Manyalela, Rollers made a significant impact in Botswana club football.
After sharing the stage with city rivals Gaborone United and Notwane (“The Gaborone Big Three”) in the 1960s and 1970s, Rollers became the outright dominant side in Botswana football in the early to mid-1980s.
After a national league was introduced in 1978, the club became hugely successful under Tshibasu Kande, a player-coach from the then Zaire (Democratic Republic of Congo). Rollers won seven league titles within the next decade, setting the tone for national dominance.
The glorious period of the 1980s made Rollers the most successful club in the country’s history, leading to the club’s popularity growing across the country. Rollers' dominance waned in the 1990s but was stabilized by Chairman Kgomotso Mogapi. The Blues won the 1995 league title, and the national FA Cup, then known as the Coca Cola Cup in 1993, 1994, and 1996, as well as the early 1990s season-opening trophy, the Gilbey’s Cup, on four occasions.
Rollers was relegated to the first division league in 2003 but regained promotion in just one season. The Blues proceeded to win the elite league in their first season back in the top flight, securing a league and Coca Cola Cup double in 2004-5 under the late coach Banks Panene.
After the 2004–05 success, Township Rollers struggled to have an impact in domestic competitions for a three-year period (2006-9). The club sold influential players such as Mogogi Gabonamong, Moemedi Moatlhaphing, and Phenyo Mongala, who joined various South African clubs.
Rollers later sold other players to South African clubs, including Boitumelo Mafoko, Terrance Mandaza, Kabelo Dambe, and Mogakolodi 'Tsotso' Ngele.
Under Managing Director Somerset Gobuiwang, Rollers won the 2009–10 Premier League, amassing 78 points and beating their closest rivals Mochudi Centre Chiefs by 13 points. The club also won the Coca-Cola Cup final with a 3–1 victory against the same team. Rollers proceeded to win the 2010-11 league title.
In 2013, the club announced a commercial drive, now under the management of Township Holdings company, with Gobuiwang (40 percent), entrepreneur Jagdish Shah (40 percent), and the society, which is owned by the club's supporters, holding the balance 20 percent.
This ownership structure was challenged in court by former club officials Mookodi Seisa, Ernest Kgaboesele, and club elder Alan Compton. The Botswana High Court ruled that the affairs of the club should be managed by the executive committee of the society to the exclusion of any other person or entity.
Shah invested heavily in modernizing Rollers operations. At the society annual general meeting (AGM) in January 2016, the elected executive committee led by Chairman Walter Kgabung was given the mandate to keep Shah as the club investor. Shah was later elected Club President in a special general meeting held in 2016.
Rollers famously made the group stage of the 2018 CAF Champions League and won five league titles in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, reigniting the glory of the 1980s.
After a ten-year period as club investor, Mr. Jagdish Shah announced his departure from Rollers in 2023. Over the 2023-24 season, Mr. Jimmy Kereng of Prestige Parlours Group took over as Club President and Chief Financier for a year. Mr. Kereng left the club by mutual consent, and Zimbabwe-born, South African-based investor, Mr. Tendani Ernie Sebata of the Sebata Group took over for a five-year period as the Rollers Club President and key investor, holding an 80 percent stake in the Popa Popa Investments management company. The Rollers Society holds the balance 20 percent.
Rollers remains Botswana’s biggest sporting brand with a large following, including a cumulative 430,000 followers on social media as of July 2024.
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3960453
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