Habitual border jumper to appear in court

Pini Bothoko | Thursday April 30, 2020 11:13

 

Habitual border jumper to appear in court

Ramatlabama Police Station commander, superintendent Zibani Mbisana told MmegiOnline that the 25-year-old Motswana man was arrested and sent to quarantine for the second time on Tuesday.

“On April 10 he was arrested (the first time) for illegally crossing the border into South Africa and back and he was taken in for quarantine. He was released from quarantine in Gaborone on April 25 and went back home. Surprisingly yesterday, he was arrested for a similar offense and has been taken back into quarantine,” Mbisana said.

The Phihitswane village native is facing two offences, one for entering Botswana through an ungazetted point of entry and another for disobeying COVID-19 lockdown regulations.

Asked what was behind the suspect’s frequent visits to South Africa, Mbisana said when interrogated yesterday upong arrest the suspect said he had illegally crossed the border to Tlapeng village to collect his chicken.

“It looks like the suspect has relatives across the border hence his frequent illegal visits across. Majorities of Batswana living along the border have relatives on the other side and often visit each other. Since the national lockdown borders have been closed down, but some residents have resorted to jumping across the border to visit their relatives,” he said.

Mbisana pleaded with members of the public to refrain from visiting their relatives across the border and to take COVID-19 regulations seriously because their thoughtless acts can lead to the spread of the deadly coronavirus and put other people’s lives at risk.