Botswana Congress Party (BCP) president Dumelang Saleshando’s wait for an ordered Uber cab turned ugly last week Tuesday when he was abruptly robbed of his valuables at gunpoint.
The former Leader of Opposition in Parliament, who will lead his party to the 2024 polls, was robbed of his mobile phone, laptop in bag, and important personal and party documents. His bank cards were also grabbed at gunpoint in full view of other travellers who had just disembarked from the Gautrain. The Saleshandos (Dumelang and spouse, Dineo) had just alighted from the Gautrain around the Sandton station whilst waiting for an Uber when, just two minutes before their ride arrived, all hell broke loose. The politician was in South Africa for a medical appointment with his wife. “Look, it happened so swiftly and my wife Dineo was there on crutches watching in disbelief as well, as an armed robber grabbed my phone just from my ear as I was on a call and then grabbed the laptop bag pointing a gun at me,” Saleshando narrated the painful ordeal which occurred about a month ahead of the country’s national polls traditionally billed for October.
The opposition legislator insists the incident “was more than just a simple robbery as my wife had her phone in her hand, a handbag and other valuables, and it seems the robber who would later escape in a getaway car wasn't interested in Dineo’s valuables”. “I'm not even suggesting that the robbers should have robbed my wife. But, the motive suggests it was much more than a robbery,” Saleshando told The Monitor in an interview post the incident. The armed robber, according to BCP leader, strangely didn't even demand his wallet, which was in his possession and this heightened hiss concerns that the robbery was politically motivated and simply targeting other things. Last week Wednesday, Saleshando was admitted to a hospital in South Africa for a scheduled procedure on that day. Strange enough, the Maun West legislator indicated that WhatsApp messages sent to his phone were read as he got feedback to that effect.
“There must be a bigger motive than just stealing,” he reiterated showing “it’s that season again where politics can get to levels of desperation”. He told The Monitor that his party was running a very competitive campaign and surely they would attract unscrupulous attention. “The good thing is that I'm not doing anything dirty as a politician. As a party, we're running a very clean campaign as well,” he said. Saleshando, however, admitted that the robbery has terribly disorganised him, as whilst he embraces digitisation, “I still operate a diary and will always start a week with a plan for the next seven days or so.” He was worried also that he had lost some of his valuable contacts acknowledging that it was going to take him a while to put things back together.
Considering how they have been hit, Saleshando believes that the assailants could have been tailing them unnoticed the entire time. Quizzed as to whether he had reported the incident to the police in South Africa, Saleshando who is still reeling from the trauma of the ordeal, stated that to his disadvantage, the incident occurred on the evening of Tuesday and on Wednesday he was admitted to the hospital till Friday. “I have accepted the terrible loss and luckily, we were able to block the bank cards before anything bad happened,” the visibly shaken politician said this week.