One of the oddities that struck officers from the Auditor General as they went around last August inspecting how Botswana was deploying its resources to fight Covid-19, was that “despite the long stretch of 12-hour shifts, meals were not provided to Botswana Police Service officers manning the roadblocks.” Police officers worked alongside members of the Botswana Defence Force whom, as the auditors noticed, were adequately provisioned with food from nearby barracks.
“BDF Officers ended up sharing their meals with their counterparts on humanitarian grounds,” says the recent Auditor General’s report on Covid-19. “This caused an inconvenience and health risk to the officers as they had to work for long hours without sufficient food.”
The auditors also found out that at a time that everybody else was being urged to observe all Covid-19 health protocols (washing hands with soap or sanitising hands), “police officers were also not provided with adequate resources such as tents, water, sanitizers, furniture (stretchers or camping beds), which posed health risks for the officers and the public especially where there were no sanitizers.”
On talking to the officers, the auditors learnt that their superiors were not lending appropriate support.
“For instance, lack of response from high authority despite challenges raised by officers on roadblocks. Furthermore, non-cooperative behaviour was observed from road-users, including Government drivers who did not follow road block protocols by jumping the queue without communicating with the staff on duty,” the audit report says.
However, both police officers and soldiers were put in a situation where they couldn’t carry out their assigned tasks diligently. Ablutions were a big problem.
The report reads: “For instance, one mobile toilet was shared by both male and females, which was an inconvenience; whilst another mobile toilet which was at the Bus Rank roadblock lacked privacy due to poor structure, and had to be covered with military-camouflage-nets in order to blend with the surroundings. In other places, some roadblocks had no ablution facilities at all, leaving the officers with no option but to go to the adjacent ablutions at filling stations, and/or request such from nearby businesses.”
In at least one case, a roadblock was set up in an inappropriate place. The auditors say that a roadblock was set up near SADC House in Gaborone “where there was odour from sewerage and the Gaborone City Council did not address the matter despite numerous reports.”
While the report reveals that there was a communications team whose members were paid P1800 a day, there were communication lapses that led to conflict and misunderstanding that could have been easily avoided. In some cases, law enforcement officers manning roadblocks were kept in the dark when vital information was released to members of the public. The report gives an example of information that was released during the Greater Gaborone Zone lock down from July 30, 2020 to July 14, 2020. The Private Office of the Vice President informed members of the public that they could do essential shopping at their nearest shopping centres but kept the BPS and BDF in the dark.
