Business As Usual At The Border

By Chippa Legodimo
Correspondent | Monday May 26, 2008 00:00

 

According to officials, this has not stopped Batswana from crossing over to Mafikeng.

The immigration officer in charge of Ramatlabama border post, Joseph Motsumi told Monitor on Saturday that despite such incidents, people continued to cross from both sides of the border at a normal rate.

He said that after hearing of the attack on the train, they communicated with the South African Police to find out how serious the problem was and if there was any need to warn people from crossing there and that the SAPS assured them that things were under control and that there was no need to panic.

'We wanted to get information on the seriousness of the problem so we could warn people and have answers if we received any inquiries and so far they have told us that the situation has been brought under control,' he said.

Motsumi said that the movement of people had not been affected by the incident saying, 'normally this border post is busy especially at month end but the number of people that have been crossing here are just normal. Right now the numbers are not that high because it is not yet month end, we expect more people in the last few days of the month,' he said.

He also said that he was not sure what the motive for the Friday attacks were but that he was informed that the people who attacked the train were angry that their village had gone for long without electricity.

'But why they vented their anger on our train I do not know, I am not even sure what their intentions were but we are in constant communication with the SAPS and we would warn our customers if need be,' he said.

The attacks which have been taking place in some parts of South Africa have been perpetrated by mostly the youth. Monitor interviewed a certain South African young man who had just returned from Gaborone on his way to Mafikeng about the attacks.

Although he did not want to be identified, he expressed disappointment at the way some of his countrymen have been injuring and killing foreigners at times torching them alive.

'These attacks are barbaric. I have witnessed some but I never took part in any, I even try to stay as far as possible from such people. They forget that the people who fought for our freedom sought refuge in neighbouring countries like Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana and they were never treated like this because that is what people should do to others during the hard times,' he lamented.

'Apparently, these people are targeting Nigerians, Pakistanis, Zimbabweans and Mozambique nationals because they say they are bringing sophisticated crimes to South Africa but that is no justification because they are now killing indiscriminately and what kind of country are we?' he asked.

The man also claimed to have witnessed the attack on Botswana train and that he did not understand how those people connected it with their shortage of electricity. 'If they have any complaints about electricity, then they should confront the South African officials and not trains from other countries because they do not even use it,' he said.