A clutch of police officers armed with batons and plastic riot shields stumbled on each other as they scurried for cover.
“We are going to kill cops today,” declared a young chubby face, barely in his teens, who was part of a stone throwing mob baying for the blood of fleeing blue uniforms.
The bustling Borakalalo shopping complex in Molepolole choked in tear gas and cowered under a hail of stones, the sound of gunfire and exploding teargas canisters as community junior secondary school students and police officers fought pitched battles on Friday.
At least half a dozen students and police officers were injured in street battles that lasted for more than three hours. Amid screams of “we want education, not policemen,” protesting students hurled stones and pieces of cement at police officers who responded by firing rounds of rubber bullets and acrid tear gas at the charging mob.
The fighting started a few meters from Kgari Sechele Secondary School where the band of police officers held out for sometime before breaking up and fleeing for cover into a walled shopping complex with the rioting mob in pursuit.
For close to one hour, police were trapped inside the shopping complex with chanting youths hurling stones, breaking cars and shop windows.
It was impossible to escape the stench of tear gas. It enveloped the whole neighborhood like a sticky slime, carried by the wind to even a few neighborhoods that survived the struggle by police to bring Molepolole under control after a fierce student protest led to rioting.
The clashes, triggered by an attempt by police to disperse a peaceful protest by students, are the worst disturbances to hit Molepolole in decades.
After forcing off the mob with a volley of rubber bullets and tear gas, the band of police officers emerged from the wrecked complex stepping over broken pieces of their plastic riot shields and helping injured colleagues on to the back of police vans that ferried them to the hospital.
Some officers, still holding on to remains of what used to be riot shields banded together and walked a safe distance away like a retreating vanquished army. They bore humiliated faces, embarrassed by the thrashing they received at the hands of junior school students who had no clear line of command.
The retreating team of police officers battled frayed nerves as they tried to regroup after the ordeal. An edgy senior officer who was commanding the team pleaded with press photographers to turn their lenses away as he sucked hungrily on his cigarette.
“I should count myself lucky to be alive,” said a young officer who had survived two attacks by the marauding youths as he rolled back his trousers and shirt sleeves to reveal clotting blood stains.
He was right.
The determined nature of the students could easily bring about the death of a police officer.
An officer who was part of the team that was bused in from Gaborone to reinforce the police team hollered for help under a cloud of tear gas after he accidentally set off the tear gas canisters strapped on him by the armour vest.
The frozen team of police officers watched with fright as the screaming colleague tried to unstrap the fuming green canvas vest.
Indications are that the riot may not have been a heat-of-the-moment reaction to an approach by police, as it now seems the riots followed lengthy preparations, including students moving from one school to the other to mobilize colleagues.
The Directorate of Security Intelligence Services was also caught napping. The police officers had no idea of an impending riot and did not have a scripted game plan on how to handle. They were forced to make decisions on their feet and this exposed their lack of experience in dealing with riot control.
Failure in communication and errors in policing judgment did not help the situation. At some stage, there was an argument between police officers over strategy and tactics. Some insisted on barricading students behind school gates while others felt that this would only incite them to riot.
Some onlookers also talked of the invisible hand of the union in the whole issue. As the rioting students retreated from their clash with police officers, they regrouped and banded with government workers who had downed tools demanding a salary increase.
Local authorities – from District Commissioner, to Council Chairman, from Regional Education Officer to Paramount Chief were clearly gob-smacked by the unexpected turn of events in a village that, until Friday morning, did not show any birth signs of an uprising.
It was clear that the junior school students were clearly relishing what had been irrefutable victory against the police who, at least for that day, were the public face of an authority accused of refusing to increase public servants salaries.
For the Molepolole Police, it could have been worse, especially if the rioting junior school students had been joined by their more senior colleagues from Kgari Sechele Secondary School and Molepolole College of Education.
But to the young students, it did not matter as to them victory was all the sweetest, not least because it had been singlehandedly accomplished without support from their bigger brothers and sisters.
There are fears that taking the cue from their Molepolole compatriots, other students across the country may choose to lock horns with authority unless a settlement is promptly reached between Government and the striking public servants.
