Boy, 16, Drowns During Baptism
Pini Bothoko | Monday January 21, 2019 13:24
The teenager, in company of his Calvary Christian Church members, were led by their pastor to undertake one of the major customs in Christianity; baptism.
It is alleged after muttering some words of prayers, the pastor immersed the boy into the pond, head backwards and lifted him up the first time then the deceased slipped from the baptiser’s hands.
In Christianity doctrines, baptism by immersion ought to be done in such a way that the person being baptised is immersed in the water body three times to signify the ‘father, Son and Holy Spirit’.
However, the boy could not go through the steps as he strangely sunk deep down into the water just when the pastor wanted to immerse him for the second time in view of the congregation.
Thamaga police station commander, Superintendent Moses Kwarare confirmed the tragedy saying it occurred on Saturday morning at around 7am.
“Realising what was happening, the pastor tried to stretch his hands to grab the boy but it was already late,” Kwarare said.
“The congregation contacted Thamaga police for help. On arrival, the police tried to retrieve him something that proved futile. As police could not find him, they called for assistance from Police SCUBA diving team from Gaborone to the rescue,” he added.
Kwarare cautioned that the pond appears to be deep since even the SCUBA diving team took a while to retrieved the body of the deceased.
“After retrieving the boy the police took him to Thamaga primary hospital where he was certified dead by the doctors on arrival. The deceased’s body is still in the hospital mortuary waiting for post mortem to be conducted sometime this week, ” he said. The police boss cautioned churches to avoid conducting their baptism ceremonies at the said pond as numerous lives have been lost in the past at Metsimotlhabe River.
“I have learnt that so far more than 10 people have lost their lives in the past in that pond. This worries us as the police because despite those deaths, churches continue to baptise their congregation there. The pond appears to be deep something that is very risky especially for people who do not know how to swim,” said Kwarare.
The police said they have since discovered that the said pastor is a Zimbabwean national who is staying in Botswana unlawfully.
“We have not charged him with causing death yet, but investigations into the matter are ongoing,”
Kwarare revealed.
“He is however in police custody facing a single offence of unlawfully staying in Botswana. We have discovered that his passport has expired about a month ago and since then he has been unlawfully residing in Botswana.”
In other case in Thamaga, the station head said on Saturday around 7pm, they arrested two men aged 27 and 36 with counterfeit P200 banknotes.
“The duo, currently in police custody helping the police with investigations, was arrested after trying to buy beers with the said P200s at Riverside Bar,” he said.
“Luckily, the cashier managed to identify the notes were fake and alerted police officers who were on patrol and the duo were nabbed.”
Kwarare said the first case of counterfeit P200 banknote was reported in November 2017 and similar cases continued to get out of control the whole of 2018 causing a serious concern.
He said the counterfeit banknotes look genuine with serial numbers but one can spot the difference, as it feels a bit rough when stroked. Kwarare revealed that the syndicate that has been terrorising Thamaga with fake P200 notes have been targeting bars, tuck shops and street vendors usually do their escapades at night.