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Botswana: BDF Major Accused of Applying Military Type Confession Tactics on Gardeners
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The Voice (Francistown)
13 May 2008
Posted to the web 13 May 2008
Francinah Baaitse
Francistown
"Tota Rra o mpolaelang! (why are you killing me?)," said desperate Kenaleone Sebolao to a muscular soldier, who seemed intent on chocking him to death.
The alleged torture at the hands of Major Keratwaemang Mike Solomon of the Botswana Defence Force left a struggling security guard and part-time gardener in traumatized and in severe pains, and unable to urinate. He still carries the evident scars on his wrist.
On that fateful day, just after the Easter Holidays in March, Sebolao said he had just finished his temporary errands of grass cutting at the camp and was about to rush to his permanent work as a night security guard, when two soldiers and a gardener burst in at his house in Ramoshaga, near Mogoditshane. First they claimed to offer him the grass cutting job which he declined as he was supposed to go to work. But when Solomon told him they wanted him in connection with a theft that had occurred earlier at the camp, he agreed to go with them.
"Naturally, they always suspects us because we do not earn as much as they do," he said.
Sebolao said instead of going to the Military Police offices as promised, Solomon dropped off the other BDF officer and the gardener then drove off with him towards Kgale hill.
At Kgale Hill, "he ordered me to put my hands behind my back and hand cuffed me. He then started the torture. He suffocated me multiple times with a plastic bag until it got torn. Then he found another plastic and continued to suffocate me."
It was then that, "I asked him why he was killing me. But he just kept on demanding that I tell him where I took his stolen property; a jacket, a pair of tennis shoes (takkies), two cell phones and a laptop. I do not even know what a lap top look like".
The helpless Sebolao who could feel life escaping from his lean body pleaded with the soldier to go and get witnesses who could prove that, the Saturday Solomon's property allegedly disappeared, he was slaughtering a goat at another officer's house.
"We spend the whole of that Saturday there."
The officer's wife (whose name will be protected for fear of victimization), confirmed that Sebolao spent the whole day at their house. She also revealed Sebolao is a very obedient and loyal young man who have been working for her for years.
Sebolao continued, pointing out that the torture continued. "He took me to his house and continued to gag me with the plastic. When he had exhausted his strength he took me to ... (officer's) house where he searched the yard for his stolen property."
He apparently did, even searching the servant's quarters at the owners' request.
From there, Sebolao alleged Solomon took him to the Military Police where he found another officer, who joined in more torturing of the security guard. He said it was here that his genitals were pulled and stroked, and the suffocation continued.Then Solomon and the MP officer took Sebolao to Mogoditshane Police station, where he was taken behind closed doors, and alleged was further choked and gagged in the presence of a CID officer, something the station denies knowledge of.
From the police station, Sebolao allege they, together with the MP and CID officers, went back to his house to search for the missing items, when they failed to find anything, they went to other temporary gardeners' house.
The officers allegedly bust into Sane Motswainyana's room in Mogoditshane where he was sleeping with the wife and children. Motswainyana said the officers just burst into his house, stepping on the children who were sleeping on the floor.
Startled and naked man, Motswainyana said he was handcuffed to the back, with his frightened children and wife staring at his exposed manhood. He alleged the officer turned things upside down searching for the stolen goods and found nothing.
After his wife pleaded with them to let him put on a trouser, they released him but handcuffed him immediately after he was dressed. He was also taken to the MP offices where he was choked, beaten and pulled by genitals. He also spent days with difficulties in passing urine and he couldn't walk properly.
When The Voice interviewed him two weeks later, his neck was still bruised.
The two claim they, together with another gardener who was also allegedly tortured that night, were taken back to Mogoditshane police cells where they were locked overnight. On being discharged in the morning, by the same CID officer, they wanted to report the assault, but they were referred to Old Naledi, as Kgale Hill fell under the Old Naledi jurisdiction.
Assistant superintendent Balibadzi Boy of Old Naledi Police has confirmed that indeed they have received Sebolao's complaint and were investigating.
Motswainyana, however, did not lodge a case against his alleged torturers, saying conviction in Sebolao's case would be enough justice for him.
The man at the centre of the storm, Major Solomon has been playing hide and seek with The Voice for two weeks. First, last week Tuesday, he claimed he needed permission from BDF's protocol department before he could speak, on a personal matter. Hours later went by as The Voice team waited at the gate.
Then this week, the chase continued as Solomon kept on giving excuses why he could not be interviewed.
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An officer in the Public Relations office in the BDP insisted the matter would be investigated with the relevant offices before the army could comment.
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