Mmegi

Cross border crime rampant in Zone 11 despite FMD outbreak

Lamenting: Nkele says people from villages along the South Africa - Botswana borderline continue to cross at ungazetted areas PIC MBONGENI MGUNI
Lamenting: Nkele says people from villages along the South Africa - Botswana borderline continue to cross at ungazetted areas PIC MBONGENI MGUNI

PHITSHANE MOLOPO: With Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) currently threatening the beef industry in Botswana, authorities have lamented that large numbers of people are still criss-crossing the borders illegally and carrying contraband products from South Africa.

While the Police in Phitshane Molopo are complaining that communities continue to disregard protocols set to contain the disease by crossing at times carrying meat at ungazetted areas, veterinary officials lament that they continue to confiscate meat and meat products, especially from truck drivers.

Speaking to Mmegi, Superintendent Pearl Nkele of Phitshane Molopo police, lamented that people from the policing area, which consists mostly of villages along the South Africa - Botswana borderline, continue to cross the border at ungazetted areas as they used to do before the FMD outbreak in South Africa and some areas in the Good Hope District.

Editor's Comment
Batswana need to do better to stop FMD

It is a clear signal that the government’s purse is empty and that our own behaviour has left veterinary officials fighting with one hand tied behind their backs. We have been here before. During COVID-19, many of us thought we knew better. We ignored simple rules, we carried on as if the danger was someone else’s problem, and the virus took lives and left our economy on its knees. We are still broke from that experience. Yet now, with FMD...

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