The official version of what happened on last week’s unusually eventful Wednesday is what is contained in a press statement from the Botswana Police Service (BPS).
“Nine men aged between 20 and 35 of Botswana and South African origin died in exchange of fire with members of the Botswana Police Service this morning (23/02/2022) at Phase 2 location in Gaborone,” reads the statement from the BPS spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Dipheko Motube.
The statement was posted to the BPS Facebook page at 1625hours. On the face of it, this was the standard fare that Motube’s office ordinarily puts out after an incident. However, it is likelier that the statement was meant to counter a banner story that was posted to Sunday Standard ‘s own page much earlier. One allows for the fact that in the event that may not have been the intent, it certainly was the effect because some commentators harangued us for “insulting” BPS. The story, which was posted at 1602hours reads in full: “DIS Sebele Commando Special Assault Team Kills 8 Robbers.” The “DIS” refers to the Directorate of Intelligence Services and Security, whose name is typically abbreviated a letter short.
The arrest of robbers falls within BPS’ legal authority; it is police officers who pursue and arrest suspects. Officially therefore, even when the Service works with other law enforcement agencies that take a more prominent role, it is in charge. When a matter becomes legal and requires legal resolution, it is police officers (not members of DIS or the Botswana Defence Force) who testify in court. On that basis and within the strict parametres of what is legal, it was the police who exchanged fire with the robbers.
On the other hand, the information that Sunday Standard was favoured with by a good source is that no police officers were involved in the exchange of fire with the robbers. What instead happened was that after 10 robbers had been cornered in a palatial house in Phase 2, DIS scrambled seven agents from its Special Task Team (STT) into action. The STT, which is what it insiders call it, is an elite strike force wholly made up of commandos who were recruited from the BDF. Our information is that members of this team don’t go on “arrest” missions, that they are only ever activated for “kill” missions.
The John Kalafatis matter is different but has echoes with the Phase 2 one. Kalafatis was killed in cold blood by operatives of military intelligence. Security sources have revealed that given the type of team as well as the type of weapons and ammunition that those who were sent after Kalafatis carried, there was only one possible outcome: death. While Kalafatis was himself a hell-raiser who had had one too many encounters with law enforcement, his killing had all the plot elements of a gangland hit. His killers were later convicted but President Ian Khama controversially pardoned them and had them reinstated in the army.
Sunday Standard has established that the SST members were armed with Galil ACE 7.62 calibre rifles. The Galil series of rifles are selective-fire weapons that blend the design of the Finnish Valmet and Kalashnikov AK-47. “Selective fire” means that these rifles have the capability to be adjusted to fire in semi-automatic, fully automatic, and burst mode. The burst-fire mechanisms limit the maximum number of shots fired automatically and the common limits are two or three rounds per trigger pull. The Galil ACE, a battlefield rifle which has been optimized for accuracy, is a new generation has been produced in three versions (Micro, SAR and AR) and chambered for 5.56mm NATO, 5.45×39mm, 7.62mm Soviet M43 and 7.62mm NATO. All variants have up to five picatinny rails for mounting optical devices and accessories. The Galil ACE can be stripped without any tools.
Circling back to the point about the type of weapon being matched to the nature of an operation, security sources say that this choice of weapon is seen as proof that no robber was supposed to come out of the Phase 2 safe house alive.
Police officers at the scene closed off public roads that lead to the robbers’ house with a crime-scene tape. Meanwhile, STT members went inside the house, promptly got to work and at 1601 hours when Sunday Standard provided a progress update, eight robbers lay dead. Another robber would be felled shortly thereafter. As the day wore on, members of the BDF, among them a lone female, arrived at the scene. However, from what we learn, the soldiers never got to exchange fire with the robbers but merely provided support to the police within the exclusion zone but outside the house.
The operation ended after dusk had fallen and when it appeared that the stand-off with the 10th robber would continue into the night. A rumour swirling online and through the grapevine would turn out to be true: that he had hidden in the ceiling and wouldn’t voluntarily come out. At a little after 7p.m., BPS’ Director of Crime Intelligence, Senior Assistant Commissioner, Nunu Lesetedi, told press people on the edges of the designated exclusion zone that “we have managed with the 10th robber.” By that he meant that the robber had been killed.
More than reassure members of the public that law enforcement is gaining an upper hand in its war against armed robbers, the gruesome pictures that were leaked by law enforcement the following day have also raised suspicions. The sharp-eyed have observed that none of the robbers in the pictures died with a gun in their hand. Contrast that with similar pictures that the South African Police Service (SAPS) released after its own exchange of fire with armed robbers. The weapons are visible in the pictures and appear to have fallen off the robbers’ hands as they keeled over to the floor and breathed their last.
The Wednesday incident happened a week after the Minister of Justice, Defence and Security, Kagiso Mmusi, instructed police officers to “eliminate” violent criminals. While he was referring to a gang of petty thieves who ply their trade in a Gaborone crime hotspot, the message has been largely understood to mean the elimination of all violent criminals. The latter, especially armed robbers, have put more points on the scoreboard than law enforcement. The manner in which the Wednesday operation was carried out shows that not only is law enforcement keen to catch up, it also wants to send a clear message to both armed robbers (This is what will happen from now on) and a panicked public (We are in control). The leaked pictures were clearly part of such public communication effort.
Courtesy of digital technology, news of the raid reached the outside world instantly. Basing their comments on Motube’s press statements, some South Africans both congratulated BPS and invited it to their own country to “train” the apparently ham-handed SAPS.
