Lekopanye Mooketsi
9 October 2008
One of the directors of 'The Shebeen' nightclub in Maruapula, Donovan Bakwena, has complained about police harassment.
Since the beginning of the month, police have been raiding the club, eager to implement the new liquor regulations, which stipulate that nightclubs should close early.
According to the new regulations, the clubs are supposed to close at midnight during the week and 2.00 am over the weekend.
Bakwena said the police raided the club on Wednesday and Thursday because people in the neighbourhood were complaining of noise pollution. However, he said he told the police that the club was sound proof. So the music from the club is not heard outside. He indicated that it is people who play music from their vehicles in the carpark who were making noise.
The nightclub operator said the police were fabricating stories to put the club in bad light.
He said after the police failed on the issue of sound pollution, they demanded to see the club licence. Bakwena said they informed the police that they had applied for the renewal of the licence. He added that the law entitles one to operate while waiting for a fresh licence.
He also produced a copy of a letter from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, which addresses the issue of the renewal of licences.
"As long as you have submitted your application, the council is supposed to give you a letter of acknowledgement. But after we showed the police the letter of acknowledgement they closed us down," he said.
Bakwena said the police ordered the club shut on Friday and they could not operate that night. He said they lost a lot of business due to the police action.
The club was only allowed to operate on Saturday following the intervention of lawyers and both government and Gaborone City officials. "Our lawyer spent the whole day on Saturday fighting for the re-opening of the club. How can the police ignore a directive from the licensing authority?"
The Station Commander for Central Police station, Takongwa Madzwiduma, was not available for comment. But one of the officers wondered how the club owners could rush to the newspapers "when people in the area have long been complaining about the noise from the club".
Meanwhile, one of the nightclub operators, Benito Durbano of Selebi-Phikwe joint, El Passo, said police rarely visit their premises because "we have been complying" with the new regulations.
His only concern is that the authorities are not taking any action against people who sell beer outside the club premises. "It is a big problem for us. I am employing people and paying overheads," he said. He said it is high time that police took action against illegal beer vendors.
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