States Modibati
28 March 2008
Gaborone — The mass exodus of people from Maun to spend the Easter holidays elsewhere has negatively affected business at the bus-taxi rank. The rank was deserted and many traders found it hard to do business.
On Easter Monday, an elderly Combi driver told Businessweek that many of his colleagues did not make a profit during the long holidays.
His colleague Keodireleng Phadime shared his sentiments, though he was hoping for better tidings when people return to work after the holidays. A young street hawker at the rank, Mara Eriton who sells tomatoes, onions and oranges was disappointed by the little cash returns after spending the whole day on the job. He blamed the chain supermarkets which open over the holidays for making it difficult for him to get customers.
However, outlets in Maun where alcoholic beverages are sold, like bars and liquor restaurants appeared not to have been seriously affected by the holiday. A good number of residents who remained in the tourist town frequented pubs to entertain themselves during the holidays. Councillor Clement Bethia who runs a liquor restaurant said that business was not bad. His only worry was the several bank ATMs were not functioning on Saturday and Sunday and which patrons were not able to get money.
Meanwhile the big business companies in Maun were not adversely affected by the holidays. Front office manager at Cresta Rileys Hotel, Nnaniki Chinga said that about 50 percent of their rooms were occupied. She revealed that they had a braai party within the hotel premises at a charge of P30 at the entrance with a prominent DJ from Gaborone entertaining the night crawlers.
Meanwhile Maun police station commander Robson Maleka was happy that during the holidays, they received only a few reports of minor criminal offences. He expressed concern that some members of the public have a tendency of not apprehending suspects when the police are not around when a crime is committed. Later the same people complain that it takes a long time for the police to arrive at the scene of crime.
Maleka advised the public that the law empowers members of the public to arrest a suspect. He added that in urban areas, it is not easy for criminals to run away in full view of the public because the people will arrest and hand them over to the police.
He told people who like carrying large sums of money whenever they go out to entertain themselves at night to stop doing so. He emphasised that it is very risky because more often than not, they are robbed of their hard earned cash by criminals.
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