A Zimbabwean police woman who allegedly shot and killed a rival in a love triangle is resisting repatriation.
Francistown Senior Magistrate, Lorraine Makati Lesang, is on November 15, 2007 expected to hear a case in which Eleanor Tembure is objecting to efforts to get her extradited to Zimbabwe to stand trial for murder.
Tembure is currently held in Francistown where she has been held for the past two years.
Allegations against Tembure are that she had shot and killed a woman in Zimbabwe in an alleged love triangle.
After the incident, Tembure then crossed the border into Botswana and claimed that she was facing the danger of being tortured if she is extradited back to her home country of Zimbabwe.
The state is expected to argue that the case has no merit as Tembure is wanted for a crime she had allegedly committed in Zimbabwe and at a time she was an officer in the Zimbabwe Republic Police. The state will say that it is not true that she will be tortured if extradited to Zimbabwe.
Frederick Mpopang of the Directorate of Public prosecution is prosecuting the case whilst Kgalemang Kgalemang is defending the accused person.
In the past, some Namibians have raised the same issue of fear of torture if extradited to Namibia. The Courts had initially ordered that they be extradited but finally higher courts ruled against that. The Namibians are currently still being held at Francistown’s Center for Illegal Immigrants, 10 years after they crossed into Botswana seeking protection after a mutiny.
This is the first case of its kind in the country in which a Zimbabwean has lodged a case against her extradition to Zimbabwe on the grounds that she would be tortured.
This is despite the fact that Zimbabweans from all walks of life have, of late, been arriving in droves in Botswana most of them seeking greener pastures after the country’s economy had plummeted.
Some of them are normally seen around towns and villages doing menial jobs, such as working as maids and cattle herders, jobs that Batswana shun.
There are also confirmed reports of other Zimbabweans who are crossing into Botswana seeking political asylum although authorities could not give numbers.
