When Zimbabwean asylum seeker “Ezekiel Mpande” volunteered to serve in the refugees’ committee, he was accepted with only a few reservations. He seemed committed to helping Zimbabweans from Robert Mugabe’s stranglehold. But as some Zimbabwean refugees started recalling recently: “There was nothing to suggest that he was a sell out.”
Mpande was exposed as a spy who worked for the Zimbabwean Central Intelligence Organization. He is also accused of infiltrating the Botswana civil service, palling with government officials and even having an audience with President Ian Khama.
Mpande‘s case has revealed how vulnerable the Botswana government and Dukwi refugee camp are to espionage attacks. Even Dukwi refugees are now loosing sleep over the slightest hint of a security lapse.
Most have started expressing fear and raising complaints that their lives and those of relative back in Zimbabwe may be in danger.
A leader of the Zimbabwean refugees at the Dukwi camp said on Friday that the Dukwi refugee camp does not have a perimeter fence and anyone can enter the camp from all angles at any time of the day or night. Refugees are also worried that while there is a police station within the camp, security is so lax that there is no monitoring of who enters the camp at any time of the day.
The refugees are now reporting sighting mysterious off road vehicles parked at the camp at night which they say drive away as soon as they emerge from their tents. The said vehicles reportedly enter the camp from the back roads ignoring the designated entrance that passes by the police station. The refugees say that the police only started patrolling the camp after they raised concerns about the absence of the perimeter fence and reported seeing the mysterious vehicles.
They have also raised concerns about a settlement called New Stands in the village which is about two kilometers from the camps where a large number of Zimbabweans who are not refugees are renting rooms and are staying.
Residents of New Stands are said to be enjoying unfettered entrance into the camp to peddle their wares. However, the refugees have pointed out that the large number of Zimbabweans at New Stands is unjustifiable given that they cannot find employment at the nearby Mowana Mine due to suspended recruitment and the drive for localization. They, therefore, fear that the New Stands residents might be spies for the Zimbabwean government.
This may sound like paranoia, until the story of how Mpande infiltrated the Botswana system is factored in.
Mpande was allegedly arrested by Botswana police on suspicions that he might be a Central Intelligence Organization agent. Zimbabwean refugees at Dukwi say that they assisted the police with their investigations and provided them with information. The CIO agent is also said to have, at some point, freely mingled with government officials on their visits to the camp. He is even alleged to have spoken to President Khama when the president visited Francistown.
Mpande is reported to have been caught with Dukwi road maps, sketches and maps of some buildings inside the camp.
After his arrest, the suspected agent was briefly held at Francistown Maximum Prison before being detained at the Francistown Centre for Illegal Immigrants and, to the refugees’ dismay, was later deported to Zimbabwe.
Things took a turn for the worst when, after the deportation, Zimbabwean security agents started harassing the refugees’ relatives back in Zimbabwe. The refugees claim that their relatives back home are being persecuted and threatened while some of them have reportedly disappeared mysteriously. The refugees claim that the pattern of harassment suggests that Mpande may have gathered information against them and is now using it to harass their relatives in Zimbabwe.
The refugees have also raised concerns about several Zimbabwean women married to asylum seekers from other countries like Angola and Namibia who enjoy free and frequent visits to and from Zimbabwe. They suspect that these refugees, some of whom are married to Zimbabwean nationals, might be passing information about the goings on at the camp to Zimbabwean authorities since refugees from other countries can enter and depart from Zimbabwe legally.
While the Zimbabwean asylum seekers have reportedly raised these concerns with government officials including the office of the president, not much has been done so far.
An officer at the Ministry of Justice Defense and Security, Ross Sanoto, denied any knowledge of any complaints from the Dukwi refugee camp. He confirmed that there in no perimeter fence around the camp, adding that it was vandalized and has been slated for erection during NDP 10. He, however, pointed out that the fence will be erected not out of any security concerns but as a development measure. “The refugee camp is a gazetted security area. There are security forces within the camp and so far we are not aware of any attacks or breach of security,” he said.
He also denied any knowledge of any individual who was arrested and later deported on suspicions of spying.
Although a police officer at the camp also pointed out that they maintain security at all times, saying that they have never at any point suspended day and night patrols, the same refugee said that night patrols by the SSG were resumed just this week after their meeting with officials from the president’s Office and the Dukwi Police at which they raised these concerns last Saturday.
