Three 'Trafficked' Zimbabweans Perish In Car Crash
Lebogang Mosikare | Monday January 13, 2020 14:11
According to Officer Commanding Number 15 District Senior Superintendent Kabo Badirwang, the incident happened on January 4 around 10 am.
While the police were busy inspecting cars at a roadblock along the Francistown- Ramokgwebana road, a Toyota Wish car coming from the side of the Zimbabwean border towards Francistown overran the roadblock, said Badirwang.
The driver overran the roadblock, Badirwang explained, because he was transporting 15 illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe adding that the car is only certified to carry only seven passengers.
“After the driver overran the roadblock, it overturned a few metres away from the roadblock leaving three Zimbabwean women aged between 25 and 30 dead on the spot. We took the Zimbabweans to Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital (NRH) where they were certified dead,” he said.
“Other passengers in the car including the driver of the car and his accomplice sustained injuries of differing degrees and were also admitted at NRH.”
The police boss further said they discovered that all the passengers in the car had no passports to enter Botswana and they did not know each other. “We found out that these people were picked up by their fixers in Botswana who are paid lots of money to transport them to various places within and outside Botswana.
Relatives of the three Zimbabweans who died came to Botswana to identify them at NRH,” added Badirwang.
He continued: “We have since charged the driver of the car with a count of causing death by reckless driving and another count of aiding foreigners to enter Botswana illegally. We have also charged the driver’s accomplice with aiding foreigners to enter Botswana illegally. The driver of the car is still at NRH while his accomplice was treated for minor injuries and released. He is also not in our custody.” Badirwang expressed concern that Batswana are involved in the system of trafficking people from other countries internally and outside Botswana. “We plead with whoever is involved in this type of system to desist from doing so because the long arms of the law will soon catch up with them.
We warn them that we are very vigilant more than ever before because we have discovered their modus operandi,” he said.
Meanwhile, Badirwang said a similar incident happened towards the end of last year at Butale village.
In that incident, Badirwang said, a seven-seater Ipsum car overran a roadblock and killed two Zimbabweans on the spot.
One of them, Badirwang added, was identified by his relatives and taken to Zimbabwe for burial while another one was buried in Botswana after nobody from Zimbabwe came to claim his corpse.