Gale Ngakane
3 March 2008
Francistown — She espied a contingent of security personnel on patrol on her street, knowing that they were going to come to her house. She dived under the bed. And when they came, they searched the whole house, going from room to room, but it must have escaped their minds to look under the bed where she lay motionless while earnestly praying that they would not find her.
Eventually, she heard the footsteps and voices receding in the distance as soldiers, police officers and special constables talked animatedly to some of her compatriots who were also protesting loudly.
One woman was begging to be allowed to finish her cooking, or at least to turn off the stove lest the house burns down. One of the security officers was telling her to hurry and not to get any funny ideas.
She also heard clinking of iron shackles as some men were being chained together. She knew that the police usually chain people who attempt to run away.
"After they had gone, I sneaked out. I knew they would not come back and if they did, I would be ready for them," a Zimbabwean lady who identified herself as Sandy said in hushed tones at the house she is renting with numerous others in Somerset East.
She said she has been coming to Botswana for the past two years now and that in that time she has learnt to deal with the police.
"If I am ready and I want to go home, I do not make a fuss. I wait for them to come. Then I give myself up. Whenever I have left something in the house I tell them and they allow me to go back into the house.
"Actually, I really enjoy the free trip back home. I come from Bulawayo and once they drop me at the Ramokgwebana border gate, I only need a little amount of money for the remainder of the journey," said Sandy.
Back home, Sandy, 36, revealed that she has got three children who go to a primary school. She is the breadwinner as the father of the children has deserted her.
"Because I have to fend for my children, I have no choice except to come to Botswana. I do piece jobs which, if I am lucky, I am able to make up to P500 which translates into millions of Zim Dollars, before I am caught.
"If the situation continues like this in the future I am going to make sure my children follow my example in order to survive. I do not know why some of the Zimbabweans try to flee when the security forces come after them because if you do not trouble them, they in turn do not harass you," said Sandy.
Since the beginning of this week, security forces have been out in force combing the streets of Francistown looking for illegal immigrants, who are mostly Zimbabweans.
Central Police Station commander, Mokuedi Mphathi, said the campaign in this area started Tuesday when they nabbed 101 Zim illegals and deported them back to their country the same day.
By Wednesday, they were still at it.
Mpathi however, declined to say for how long they were going to continue searching for the illegals.
"We do this randomly because we always want to catch them by surprise. They must never know when we are going to descend on them," Mphathi said.
Besides taking fingerprints, the illegals are not tortured.
Usually if the campaign to catch them runs late, they are put up for the night at the comfortable detention center and then transported on the morrow after a hearty breakfast and shower.
Whenever the security personnel arrest the illegals they also transport their property, which has been a boon for enterprising individuals like Sandy.
To them, Christmas does not come once but many times and Botswana is the best Father Christmas of all as it is always there all year round.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Mmegi/The Reporter. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
