Cocaine distribution networks and related agents are finding ways to bypass security challenges and restrictions in Botswana. Over the past few years, cocaine trade in southern Africa has been enabled by air supply chains and overland routes and transport modalities, with most shipments originating in South Africa’s Gauteng province. This allows the efficient movement of illicit drugs to regional ports and cities. As markets in southern Africa are becoming important in the transnational flow of cocaine, Botswana is becoming a popular transit route. This is being reinforced by poorly monitored borders.
The seizure of more than five tonnes of pressed cocaine in South Africa in 2021, while implied to be in transit to international markets, has raised questions about the size and characteristics of Botswana’s cocaine market. Authorities still cannot put a figure on the annual cocaine trade in Botswana because of the inadequate capacity of the government to generate the data to monitor and understand the domestic cocaine market.
A report prepared by Jason Eligh which examines cocaine flow and the potential for them to sustain and entrench existing domestic markets states that while Botswana is often ignored in regional analysis, “Botswana is increasingly contributing to the regional distribution of cocaine.” The report titled Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime titled: A powder Storm; The Cocaine Markets of East and Southern Africa notes that Nigerian cocaine syndicates are responsible for bringing the illicit drug into Botswana. The report says the syndicates use “overland routes and transport modalities, with most shipments originating in South Africa’s Gauteng province. The drugs move through Botswana to neighbouring Zambia and Zimbabwe.”
The capital, Gaborone, is the central distribution hub as it is closely situated to two international overland border gates with South Africa. With cocaine increasingly becoming popular in Botswana, there are fears that the country could transition from being a cannabis and meth consuming region, to cocaine transit hub and retail destination. A cursory look at the price, distribution systems and market structures of cocaine shows that the mean retail price of cocaine powder in Euros per gram (€/g) in Botswana is 115. In Zimbabwe it costs 167, Zambia 116, Seychelles 329, Mauritius 269 and Madagascar 68.
The use of Sir Seretse Khama International Airport in Gaborone for transnational cocaine micro-trafficking passing through OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg is a danger that needs to be investigated, according to the commodity report.
“Although landlocked, Botswana cocaine distributors have the benefit of being on the pathway of a large volume of cargo that moves from the Port of Walvis Bay in Namibia. This port is situated at the head of the Trans-Kalahari Corridor, which passes through Gaborone to Johannesburg,” states the report.
A former medical health professional who spoke to this publication indicated that drugs are becoming a problem as more youths develop addictions.
“Previously, we witnessed heroin addicts injecting a hit into their body before drawing blood and injecting it into someone else. This habit compromised Botswana’s campaign against HIV/Aids, all drugs are terrible since they provide a barrier to that fight given that Botswana has already attained UNAIDS 90:90:90 target,” says Kesego Tumane.
Severe medical complications can occur as a result of cocaine use. Some of the most frequent are cardiovascular effects, including disturbances in heart rhythm and heart attacks; neurological effects, including headaches, seizures, strokes and coma. Sudden death can also occur on the first use of cocaine or unexpectedly thereafter. Cocaine related deaths are often a result of cardiac arrest or seizures.
According to a law enforcement official who spoke to this publication under the condition of anonymity, cocaine trafficking between Zambia and Botswana frequently passes through the Four Points border crossing at the eastern end of Namibia’s Caprivi Strip. “Cocaine syndicates are increasingly targeting Botswana passengers and air crew to distribute cocaine,” he says.
He claims that institutional collusion and corruption, among other things, support local and national cocaine markets. “The regional cocaine trade is fueled by law enforcement incapacity, ineptitude, and, in some cases, indifference, as well as the collusion of governmental agencies and corruption,” he says. According to Enact – a European Union (UN) supported project responsible for observing and developing responses to transnational organised crime in Africa – the African continent is now witnessing the sharpest increase in illicit drugs as a spectrum of criminal networks and political elites in eastern and southern Africa are substantially enmeshed in the trade.
