The imperfections of the Botswana Police Service have been brought into sharp relief by the case of a female police officer who was last year promoted at a time that she was being investigated for a murder-related charge.
It has now emerged that the academic qualifications that she claimed (a University of Botswana degree) and the basis upon which the promotion was made, were bogus.
Last April, the officer in question was promoted from constable to sergeant by then Commissioner of Police, Thebeyame Tsimako. This was despite her involvement in a murder-related offence. Police found a foetus buried in the yard of the officer’s home in Block 8 and, following investigations that included DNA testing, a concealment-of-birth case was opened against the officer, who is stationed in Gaborone.
The Penal Code puts concealment of birth under a category called “Offences Connected with Murder and Suicide” alongside attempted murder, accessory to murder, threat to kill, aiding suicide and killing an unborn child.
Explaining how the officer’s promotion happened last year, the Botswana Police Service spokesperson, Senior Assistant Commissioner, Christopher Mbulawa, said that her university degree stood her in good stead of such elevation. That aside there was the issue of her alleged criminality which should naturally have disqualified her. According to Mbulawa, the officer’s name had been submitted to the Promotions Advisory Board of the Service, which was unaware that she was being investigated when it recommended that she be promoted. At the time that this process was being undertaken, the criminal matter was still being handled by the station where the officer is based.
However, it has since been discovered that the UB certificate that secured the officer her controversial promotion was itself forged. The officer has since been demoted and is said to have given notice to quit the service.
