Uneasy calm in Gabane after riots
Thursday, July 25, 2013
The villagers reportedly made an attempt to burn the sangoma's house on Tuesday night but police intervened by firing teargas and rubber bullets at them.
According to a source here, the homicidal mob of villagers milled about near the sangoma's home until midnight after being dispersed at approximately 10.30pm. The middle-aged woman reacted angrily when Mmegi approached her. She ordered us to leave her property and warned the photographer not to take any pictures. The chief spokesman of Botswana Police Service, Assistant Commissioner Christopher Mbulawa, told Mmegi that calm was returning to Gabane after a chaotic Tuesday night. Mbulawa said the villagers had now joined the police in the search for 37-year old Willy Leborane because they had realised that rioting would not bring him back. He would not be drawn on whether ritual murder was suspected. "We have been searching for the man since the day he was reported missing and we continue to do so," he explained. "We believe we will find him."
It highlights the need to protect rights such as access to clean water, education, healthcare and freedom of expression.President Duma Boko, rightly honours past interventions from securing a dignified burial for Gaoberekwe Pitseng in the CKGR to promoting linguistic inclusion. Yet, they also expose a critical truth, that a nation cannot sustainably protect its people through ad hoc acts of compassion alone.It is time for both government and the...