How Mugabe�s political mess infected Botswana

The script is the same: Police or prison vans arrive at the Francistown Magistrate’s Courts or High Court everyday in the morning. Inmates or convicted criminals alight from the vans handcuffed or lay bound with fetters of iron. A few minutes later, the inmates or convicts appear before different magistrates for various court processes for arraignment, mitigation and sentencing, amongst others.

The charge sheet is read to inmates who are arraigned for the first time. An Ndebele or Shona interpreter would then translate to those who do not properly understand Botswana’s official languages: Setswana and English. After the accused are asked what language they will prefer to use in court, anyone in the public gallery will then discern that some of the accused who were arraigned are Zimbabweans through their language choice.