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Clemence Manyukwe News Editor
A MEMBER of Parliament’s Peace and Security Thematic Committee, Senator Tapera Machingauta (Zanu-PF), has condemned “diabolical Tswanas” for whipping and ill-treating Zimbabweans in Botswana.

The senator said Zimbabweans are a peace-loving people but their hospitality is not reciprocated in Botswana as they are ill-treated and abused to the extent of working without pay in the neighbouring country.

Sen Machingauta said during the Senate committee’s recent visit to Plumtree, Senators established that some people were being offered jobs in Botswana, but on pay day they would be deported without being paid.

“I went with the Peace and Security Thematic Committee to Plumtree Border Post and I was very much perturbed when they talked about democracy. We wanted to see the border and there were 22 children who came to us at the Zimbabwe-Botswana border – there were three pregnant women who had gone there. They were being deported. The diabolic thing about the Tswanas is that they make these people work and when it’s month end they deport them without paying them,” said Sen Machingauta.

“The other thing which really pained me Mr President was that some of the Zimbabweans were whipped. When a crime is committed they are taken to the chiefs and the chiefs have a right to hit somebody on the buttocks and these people were beaten and it’s painful. But when these Tswanas come into our country whether as refugees or visitors, we are very hospitable to them. We’re a peaceful country. We’re a God fearing country and when we’ve visitors we treat them very well. So why do they mistreat us? Why do they ill- treat us?”

In July, media reports said at least nine Zimbabwean men sustained severe injuries after they were canned on the buttocks with switches for entering Botswana illegally at the homestead of a chief identified only as Nkgageng.

One of the victims of the assault, Ezekiel Mukuya, spent three days unable to sit because of the severity of the injuries suffered at the chief’s community court.

Five women who were arrested together with the nine men were not caned but ordered to pay fines.

In 2004, The Chronicle quoted Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri as saying flogging someone for breaking immigration laws violated human rights.

During the same year, Botswana’s Foreign Ministry released a statement that said whipping was provided for under its laws and most convicts were given the option of a fine, but Zimbabweans almost always opted for whipping.

‘’They then report to their embassy that they’ve been tortured,’’ the ministry said in a statement.