15 Jul 2020

Tlokweng Police Station commander, Superintendent Unoziba Rari says border jumpers contribute to the numbers of people testing positive to COVID-19.
In an interview on July 13, he said out of the four cases of border jumping recorded in his policing area in June, one person tested positive.

He said the positive case was of a Zambian woman who was from South Africa, travelling with her Motswana partner and their child into the country.

Supt Rari said the couple and the child were caught by the police after crossing into the country and proper health protocols were instituted, which showed that the woman had the virus.

He said the police investigations also unearthed that the man had initially crossed to South Africa to fetch the partner and the child, who had been in Pretoria.

The Tlokweng Police Station Commander stated that the couple confessed that they were headed to the man’s Gaborone West residence.

“Imagine if this person was not arrested, she could have easily spread the virus,” said a concerned Supt Rari.

Supt Rari said that had it not been the timely police arrest, the woman could have put many people at the risk of contracting the deadly virus, adding that such cases could make the country fight a loosing battle.

He said the fourth person arrested in June was a South African national who said he was coming into the country to look for employment.

 The officer added that the suspect said his mother was from Mozambique while his father was a South African and he had no other connections with the country.

Therefore, he expressed concern that people continue to sneak to and from South Africa using ungazetted points of entry which put the country at risk recording more cases of COVID 19 cases. ENDS