Sjamboked for �rioting�
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday December 21, 2015 16:03
Mongalo said three members of the Special Support Group (SSG) sjamboked him and his friend as they waited for someone by Boikanyo Filling Station where an angry mob had been dispersed. He said: “There were car parts I had ordered from Gaborone which I had asked a friend to bring. I went to wait for him by Boikanyo Filling Station where we had agreed to meet. Around 2pm we saw SSG members dispersing people who had gathered there and two SSG officers approached us and asked us why we were standing there. We told them what we were waiting for and they left us.”
He added that three other SSG men came to him and his friend, told them to go away and started to whipping them. The attacking SSG men, who were also armed with guns, would not listen for any explanation. Mongalo said he was not aware that there was any uproar in the village until he met his fate. An mob destroyed property in Molepolole, supposedly in anger against a rumoured ritual murder in the Bakwena village. Even though he was bruised, Mongalo said he did not report the matter to the police or visit the hospital. “I cannot report to the very same people who brutally assaulted me for no reason,” he said. “I will heal on my own.”
He criticised Botswana’s armed forces for abusing their powers and hurting innocent people. He said he would look for a lawyer to help sue for the humiliation.
Police have arrested five people following a riot in Molepolole on Thursday. The mob caused damage at Highgate Shopping Complex and Kemotse Bar.
The police linked the riot to an earlier court appearance of five men suspected to have killed Nthabiseng Motlogelwa in October at Mpadithate, near Mogonono in the Kweneng District.
The acting commander of Molepolole Police Station, Gontse Segale, could not be reached for a comment as her phone rang unanswered.