FRANCISTOWN: Adorned in military and police outfit, multinational criminal gangs consisting of local and illegal immigrants are on the rampage, unleashing terror in various areas of the city, such as Monarch, Pelotelele, Phase V and Phase VI.
The new wave of crime ÔÇô which is characterized by bold, unrepentant criminals using heavy steel droppers, pangas, axes and, in some cases, a four-pounce hammer to subdue victims ÔÇô has left residents living in fear as violent criminals take over the city.
While this happens, police officers, speaking on condition of anonymity, told FPN that officers who first report to the crime scene are ill-equipped, giving them no chance against armed, dangerous and uncompromising criminals.
But the Deputy Police Commissioner (Operations), Kenny Kapinga, maintains that the current policy position not to routinely arm police officers has proved very prudent and will stay.
The spiral of gang-related violence reached its peak with the recent death of a young man who ran a battery recharge facility in Monarch after a mob attacked him at night in an apparent burglary attempt gone wrong. Although there is no conclusive information from the police, sources say many of the prime suspects are illegal immigrants.
An elderly man who resides in the same neighbourhood sustained a gash on one of his legs after parrying off an attempted burglary. Around nine burglars were later arrested. Among them were Botswana citizens, as well as illegal immigrants.
A young man met his fate after a drinking spree at a bar in the same locale. He, and three of his friends, made the mistake to respond to a desperate female scream for help in the nearby bushes. Unbeknown to them, it was a plan to lure them into an ambush.
“They hit me with a four-pound hammer,” he said from a hospital bed at the Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital, as he showed evidence of recent stitches on the head. He had a full length cast on the leg which had been slashed with a panga. Two of his friends managed to escape while one sustained minor injuries and has since been released from hospital.
Worried at the rising crime wave, residents sought to reclaim the streets from the criminals. They formed search parties with plainclothes police officers to hunt for illegal immigrants who were reported to be hiding in the bushes on the northeastern side of the Nyangabgwe Hill, up to Dumela Industrial site and on the banks of Ntshe River.
Sipho Guma, one of the community troopers on the manhunt, said that they found temporary camps in the bushes where the illegal immigrants stayed.
“We found steel droppers which matched the descriptions of those used in some of the crimes,” he said.
He confirmed that some arm-reflectors, known to be worn by police officers, and other police regalia were found in some of the camps.
Mokuedi Mphathi, station commander at Francistown Central Police Station, could not explain how police uniforms ended in the hands of criminal gangs.
“We do not dump our uniforms,” he told FPN. “We make sure that we burn the uniform once it is out of use.”
Although Mphathi could not confirm the nationalities of the perpetrators, he said reports from residents often suggested that perpetrators are illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe.
“But we cannot use that as an official record since that is just mere speculation,” he said.
However, he acknowledged the presence of illegal immigrants in the bushy area along the Francistown-Ramokgwebana road.
“We often carry out raids; and, yes, we have found temporary shelters made of plastic material, and we dismantled those structures,” he explained.
Last year, police registered 10 such incidents in October, 17 in November, and 26 in December.
There was a slump to 19 in January 2007. The number of robberies as well as house and store break-ins either remained more or less the same or went down.
“At one camp, we found the whole carcass of a goat, obviously stolen from one of the nearby cattle posts, with only the leg missing,” Guma, the community trooper, said.
During the day, the immigrants reportedly pass time at the surrounding cattle posts and descend into town during the night to meet their local partners-in-crime.
Major Billy Anthony, a resident in Monarch, confesses to living in fear. “When I sleep, I push the wardrobe to block the door,” he said.
While he acknowledged the seriousness of violent crimes, Kapinga, said the advantages of not arming the police far outweigh the disadvantages.
He said this is why, over the past two decades, Botswana has recorded the lowest number of officers killed in the line of duty.
He gave examples of countries in the region where law enforcement agents are routinely armed, like South Africa, as having high police casualties.
“When you arm the police you are telling the criminals to escalate their level of violence,” Kapinga said.
As the city grapples with the growing numbers of illegal immigrants and the inherent ills that come with it, authorities seem to have run out of ideas on how to tackle the problem.
“We take them (illegal immigrants) to the detention centre, and then repatriate them to their countries. But sooner, they are back,” Mphathi said in confirmation that with each exercise the number of repatriatees rises.
He said the police cannot win the war on crime without the public’s support, and he is somewhat disappointed at the low community response to the police’s mobilization efforts.
Guma will join the next community patrol, but he is convinced that it is a short-term measure.
“This is a vicious circle,” he said. “The long term and sustainable solution is to solve problems that lead to illegal immigration.”
FPN
