06 Apr 2020

Headman of Records for Shashemooke Mr David Adam has commended law enforcement agencies for ensuring calmness and order in the village since the start of the 28-day state of public emergency period.

Mr Adam, in an interview, commended both the police and army, saying prior to their deployment there were incidents of waywardness where bars and shebeens did not want to comply with precautionary measures set by government in a bid to stem COVID-19 spread.

“You can see for yourselves that there is absolute calm in our village and people are not wandering the streets, thanks to concerted efforts by both the police and soldiers who have been deployed here to keep the situation under close watch,” he said.

According to Mr Adam, up to 40 permits were issued to people who had to travel to access essential services in Francistown.

Mr Adam however told BOPA that COVID-19 committee of Shashemooke had to turn down scores of people, some of whom he stated wanted to be issued with permits to attend funerals as far as Borolong and other nearby villages.

“We had to sit them down and explain to them the danger associated with moving up and down and how such trips could work against the attempt by government to clamp-down on coronavirus,” he said.

He pleaded with Batswana to heed the call by government to abide by set COVID-19 regulations lest the nation perished to the deadly virus that had been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Meanwhile, Station Commander for Gerald Estate in Francistown, Superintendent Seamogano Nkau whose policing area covers Gerald Estate, Tati Siding as well as Shashemooke told BOPA that the area had experienced total compliance since Thursday midnight.

She the only incident that they had was with the two old women who were caught red-handed harvesting mophane worm, to which the culprits were only given a warning and ordered to go home. ENDS