Katete lies on the Great East Road about 90 km south-west of the provincial capital, Chipata, at an elevation of 1060 m on the watershed between the middle Luangwa River and the Zambezi.

A handful of shops run by Indian traders included a general store-cum-grocery, and a haberdasher with tailors operating treadle sewing machines on the verandah.

The Katete settlement was to service an "NRG" (Northern Rhodesia Government) secondary technical school for African male students.

[2][3] Katete was a transport and bus stop on the Great East road for the Thatcher Hobson Service, a small commercial centre.

To the south of Katete was the NRG administrative and educational settlement, while the St Francis Church mission hospital and an agricultural research station lay to the North.