No authority on shoot to kill � Tsiane
Bame Piet | Tuesday June 9, 2015 15:08
- Foreign prisoners already on ARVs
- Prisons assign warders for execution of deathrow inmates
“No, we do not have that policy,” she said in response to a question from members of the Public Accounts Committee yesterday.
She said that Botswana and her neighbours, including Namibia have a forum where heads of security organs meet and discuss ways to fight poaching and was confident that incidents where poachers were shot and killed have very low potential to cause any diplomatic standoff between the two countries.
There was a concern from Maun East MP Kostantin Markus who said indiscriminate shooting of suspected poachers from neighbouring countries has potential to put Batswana in danger when travelling to those countries.
She said that such Batswana could only be shot at if they engaged in poaching activities. She said that suspects should be apprehended, but there are instances where anti-poaching operations end in exchange of fire resulting in loss of life.
On a different matter, the PAC heard that a total of 21 foreign inmates have been enrolled on Anti- Retroviral therapy and 19 more are to be enrolled in the near future.
Although Tsiane was reluctant to discuss the matter further, citing grounds that it was before the courts.
However, she said the process of enrolling 19 inmates who recently tested positive to HIV was on-going.
Tsiane was responding to questions from members of the PAC who wanted to know what her ministry was doing on provision of ARVs to foreign inmates.
The members also wanted to know whether she did not view denying them access to ARVs as equivalent to the death sentence.
The MPs also expressed concern at the Department of Prisons and Rehabilitation for assigning prison warders to execute inmates who are on deathrow; whether there is no other better method to implement death penalty; and why close relatives of the deathrow inmate, and the media, are not allowed to witness the execution.
“Death penalty is a very controversial subject, and these are very big policy issues beyond my mandate.
“Before I can say my opinion I will have to discuss them with my minister or the Attorney General,” she said as deputy AG Nchunga Nchunga chipped in.
He explained that there are differing views about death penalty, including in the United States of America where a certain section of the population is pro the practice whilst others are anti death penalty.
He argued that it would not be fair for anybody to say the style of execution that Botswana has adopted was not a good one.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Prisons Colonel Silas Motlalekgosi said that there is counselling for all officers involved in the welfare of the deathrow inmate until the inmate is executed.
“We have pre and post counselling sessions in-house and some of it outsourced,” he said, inviting committee members to submit proof that indeed such counselling has taken place.
It has also come as a surprise that the head of prisons department is the only manager in the security sector who reports to the PAC through his PS, and that the department salaries are way lower than those of their colleagues in other security agencies.
Tsiane stated that her ministry is in the process of building barracks for prison warders to address the shortage of accommodation.