Hands off the poor!

Perhaps batons and handcuffs could pass for standard fare, even considered minimal, for law enforcement officers anywhere, but pepper spray? Yet no one - according to the minds of the men and women who make up the municipality of Jwaneng - should be troubled by this because these tools are no more than basic security equipment! Under the fascist order envisioned for Botswana by Jwaneng, local authorities aim to make a literal interpretation of a new Local Government Act whose centrepiece seems to be harassment of the downtrodden.  To carry out its "duties," as the councillors of Jwaneng describe harassment of the down and out, emphasis is placed on search and seizure, confiscating property and detaining persons. It is not enough that the targeted 'persons' are already poor and browbeaten; they will be made more desolate and abject because they must become the ultimate wretched of the earth. 'Persons,' of course, refers mainly to street vendors who are currently being treated as vermin by authorities in the cities of Gaborone and Francistown.