As late night commuters boarded buses and combis to return to their home villages that form a conurbation with Gaborone on Tuesday, the bus terminus suddenly took on the aspect of a movie set.The trouble, as everyone soon realised, was that this was no umpteenth sequel to Rambo: the smell of gunpowder was real, the robbers were real and the secret agents in unmarked vehicles were real. The commuters had just walked into a robbery in progress and the police were here to make sure the heist did not succeed. Or even start, as one account has it.So duck, they must; lest they be caught in the crossfire.
And the police did cut short the life of at least one of the would-be robbers with a bullet to the head at Shell Filling Station at Gaborone Bus Station on Tuesday night. The time was approximately 10pm. The man who fell was one of three Zimbos, probably ex-combatants in Zimbabwe's liberation war, and a Motswana. It could have been bloodier; for the Motswana man was an ex-soldier. Even so, he and his immigrant partners soon realised that they were outwitted, outnumbered and would surely be outgunned as a pincer formation of DIS agents and the Serious Crime Squad of the CID emerged from around the adjoining parking lot. Within seconds, the solid backup of the BDF and Special Support Group of Botswana Police Service also emerged from their positions behind the frontline of the plainclothes men of the CID and DIS.
