Sjamboked job seekers vow to do it again
Innocent Selatlhwa | Thursday August 11, 2016 15:56
Botswana National Front Youth League president Khumoekae Richard and three members of the movement spent a night in police custody, while riot police sjamboked several other members on Monday following their picketing at Parliament premises.
The movement’s spokesperson Kesaobaka Maruping said that they have been informed that their picketing was not illegal and therefore they want to continue doing it. “What we did was within our rights, the law provide for us to assemble for a social course and we did just that, but the police decided to brutalise us,” he said.
On Tuesday, Parliament was surrounded by police officers in case the protesters returned. “We knew the police would be at Parliament waiting to beat us, hence we sold them a dummy and did not go there, let them know how it feels to just stand with nothing to do just like us,” he said, adding that they would come back to Parliament when least expected and also organise other forms of protests.
He said they have applied for a permit to demonstrate on July 22 but to date the police have not responded. Maruping said Gaborone Secondary School declined to allow them to use their grounds citing political reasons.
He rubbished the claim that the opposition politicians who offered them solidarity are their masters. “We appreciate they came to offer solidarity, those from the ruling party had the same opportunity but they chose to turn a blind eye on us. If it wasn’t for the politicians we would not have afforded lawyers to free us,” he said.
Quizzed on what other means they have applied to raise their concerns, Maruping said they have tried to get an audience with the Youth, Sport and Culture Minister Thapelo Olopeng, but with no success.
He said they have since given up on going that route as it is a tedious process and would stick to picketing and peaceful demonstrations to seek audience especially from ministers Olopeng, Vincent Seretse, Unity Dow and Edwin Batshu. He said if they are not given audience, they would mobilise young people to boycott BOT50 independence celebrations. The movement, which is yet to be registered, also appealed for financial assistance from the public to facilitate their registration to become a Non-Governmental Organisation to tackle unemployment. They said existing programmes are not good enough as most young people were trained to be employed rather than to be employers. They said this leads to failure of a lot of youth owned businesses. Meanwhile, in a statement issued Tuesday in Parliament, Kgathi said the jobseekers conducted themselves in a manner that had the effect of undermining public order while emphasising that the Public Order Act gives the police powers to ensure preservation of public order. He accused opposition members of Parliament of encouraging the young people to do what they did.