The Great Gaborone Escape
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Friday December 18, 2020 13:51
In recent days, alleged leaks from health authorities have circulated on social media pointing to high level debates over the introduction of interzonal testing or screening. One document purported that lower priced antigen tests would be required of zone-crossing travellers, with pictures circulating of a screening card to be carried by travellers.
Panic has also been triggered by an announcement that President Mokgweetsi Masisi will address the nation on Monday via BTV, with some fearing he is set to announce difficult decisions on festive travel.
This week, hundreds of vehicles carrying groups of passengers, possibly families, have been queuing at the Dibete Gate along the A1 Road which is the boundary between the Greater Gaborone and Greater Palapye Covid-19 zones. Yesterday afternoon when Mmegi visited the Dibete Gate, exhausted-looking police and some uninspired members of the army were simply letting private vehicles pass without checking for interzonal permits, possibly due to the pouring rain. Passengers in buses were unlucky as the checking was mandatory for them. They had to disembark in the rain from the buses and form long queues to present their permits to the officers.
When the rain temporarily ceased, the checks for everyone became active, leading to long traffic which at one point went 3.5 kilometres from the Gate to the Leshibitse turn-off.
According to some of the hawkers trading at the Gate, the traffic situation has been piling up since last weekend. One of the hawkers said she has observed that the traffic picked up more since Wednesday.
The police base commander at Dibete Gate, Sub-Inspector John Mosaba, downplayed the numbers saying the traffic was normal. “This is the normal weekend traffic. We observed it last weekend and this weekend it is the same,” he said. The mass exodus flies in the face of pleas by Covid-19 Task Force who advised people not to travel these holidays. Travellers, however, were resolute.
“The Task Force has been advising us against travel since March. So we did not travel in Easter. “We did not travel during the President holidays. We failed to travel during Independence holidays. It has been a long time without going home. I am not giving you my name because they might refuse with my permit when I go back.” Another said: “We heard that there will be testing tomorrow and they are going to charge us and we can’t afford that so we left before the testing day.”
Meanwhile amid the mass confusion, the deputy coordinator of the Presidential COVID-19 Task Team, Professor Mosepele Mosepele went on national television on Thursday evening to deny rumours about possible inter-zonal testing. “Rumours that we expect people to test for Covid-19 before crossing between zones are not true,” he said. “If we come up with any decision related to Covid-19 we would address the public as we have been doing all along.
“Any decision our team is communicated to the public through different media houses. “However, we encourage people to accept that this festive season is different from the previous one because of this pandemic. “We therefore advise people to avoid unnecessary travelling to reduce the spread of this virus.”
Mosepele also revealed that they have observed a surge in the permit applications saying that at one point recently they noted that they had over 150,000 active inter-zonal permits.
He was however non-committal when asked what government’s next step would be, as travellers continue to flee the possible introduction of interzonal testing and tough travel restrictions.
“Our behaviour will determine what’s going to happen next. There’s no country that comes from holidays with better Covid-19 numbers than before. “Also, there is a high possibility that some of the people that have left already have Covid-19 but are not showing symptoms. “They will spread the disease where they are going,” he said. Despite Mosepele’s denials, a savingram purportedly from the Commissioner of Police dated December 16, 2020 speaks of the commencement of the “2020/21 Christmas and New Year Operations” “to support the Covid-19 testing for communities especially those exiting the Greater Gaborone Zone” “We have been put on notice that a number of testing centres will be set up at some strategic areas such as Jwaneng, Lobatse, Kanye, Molepolole and Gaborone effective December 18, 2020,” the savingram reads. At Dibete Gate, Mmegi team spoke to some health officials on the matter, with one, who requested anonymity saying they were waiting orders to start testing. The official requested anonymity saying only Public Relations officers can speak to the Press. The official reported they have been only screening travellers by checking their temperatures but they are ready to start the testing.
Meanwhile yesterday evening, the Ministry of Health and Wellness principal public relations officer, Doreen Motshegwa said that she “does not know” about the planned interzonal testing. Covid-19 has been on the rise in the country since July reaching 841 active cases as at December 13. However, the daily rate has dropped from about 130 cases per day to the most recent number of 70. By December 13, the country had 11,414 recorded cases, with 10,535 recoveries and 38 deaths.