Laying down the law in Mogoditshane
Thalefang Charles | Friday December 23, 2016 12:58
Arriving at the Mogoditshane Police Station, a few minutes before 10pm on a Friday night, I am nervously excited. During a debriefing earlier in the afternoon at the Broadhurst Police Station with the top brass of the country’s police force, public relations officer Witness Bosija had told us the risks involved in getting on this exercise. Despite Bosija’s warnings of violence, use of vulgar language, and encounters with really dangerous criminals, I still chose what the officials said is the “busiest police station in the country” and what many described as the “most notorious in place in Gaborone”. Armed with a camera and a fully-charged cellphone, I feel ready for an all-night patrol with the Mogodisthane police officers.
22:05 – Mogoditshane Police
Station hallways
Dirty walls, paint peeling off revealing dark patches of concrete, floor tiles that were once white now creamy/khaki like we are walking through a derelict building. If these walls could talk, they would tell that the people that have walked through these hallways did not want to be here. The furniture is tired too. Chairs with missing cushions and dull old looking table await visitors. It is change of shift and many officers are moving around. One cute special constable says she is happy to knock off as I tell her I am reporting for duty with the midnight shift. I ask her if the midnight shift has a nickname or some police code, something fancy, but she just laughs.
22:30 – SSG delivery
Our midnight team is still on parade at the back of the police station building and journalists have been instructed to wait. The waiting area has steel chairs, but the adrenaline in me does not allow me to sit in one place. Two SSG officers with guns arrive with four scared-looking people. The officers talk to the station officers before leaving and the scared arrestees are taken into the other room. Before long, two girls arrive; one is looking distraught while the other is calm. The distraught lady is wearing a white T-shirt written “O Seka Bora Moreki”. Her mouth is swollen with mild bruises on the face and there are some blood stains on her T-shirt. A fellow photographer tries to start a conversation with her but she is fuming and does not want any questions.
22:43 - Debriefing
The operation starts with a debriefing session from the Officer-in-Charge (OC) Tommy Kgaogano. There are six journalists including a Btv news crew. The OC tells us that we will be joining a patrolling team travelling in two police vehicles. “It is just a routine patrol. We will not be doing anything extra-ordinary,” he says. Inspector Phukwa Balapile is the patrol officer who will be leading the operation.
23:00 – Phindani Bar
The patrol troop leaves the police station in two police vans. In the back of my van there are five police officers, three men and two women, and myself. There are two more officers riding in front. We follow the leading van driven by Inspector Balapile carrying the rest of the media. The officers are reluctant to engage with me in conversations and I decide to keep quiet and act incognito. Our first stop at Phindani Bar, the vans pack right in front of bars. It is closing time and people come out of the bar. One man tries to strike a conversation with one of the ladies in uniform and even tries to kiss her. Someone shouts in the dark, “Magodu ba a senya kwa, lona le tsile go tshwenya matagwa”. No arrests and we move on.
23:23 - Mokwetjepe Bar
Before we arrive here, a couple is caught along the way with beer bottles. They are quickly surrounded and my charming cops that have been laughing and sharing stories of operations in the police van suddenly act angry and intimidating to this poor couple. They are quickly arrested and taken in the other vehicle. We get loud cheers from the revellers as we arrive at Mokwetjepe Bars. Our vehicles have blue lights on. We leave without any arrests.
23:34 – Senthumole Bar
Everyone quickly vanishes into the darkness as the two vehicles arrive. Officers jump out and run after them. I feel it is not a good idea to follow the chase in the dark holding cameras, so I decide to wait by the cars. It feels safe by the blue lights. Before long they return with one apprehended lady in tow.
She is pleading her innocence saying she was arrested from her home. A female officer is fuming saying the suspect’s mates wanted to beat her in the dark. The lady says she was alone and does not know what the cop is talking about. She is put into our vehicle and told to “stop making noise”.
23:51 – Tsabong Bar
Same scenes of people running into darkness as we hit the complex’s parking area. A man is questioned for taking a picture of our patrolling troop with his cellphone. He pleads innocence and is let go, but with a warning. As we leave, our lady arrestee says something on the phone that drives one cop very mad. Consequently, she asks why she is being moved around saying, “kana legale re a renka”.
00:05 - Supa Save
Three guys are arrested for drinking by the Supa Save parking lot. They are calm about the arrest as they join us in the back of the vehicle.
00:11 – Botshabelo Bar
This is where the cops were earlier sure they would get more people. “Ko Botshabelo le Supa Save ke mathata rra,” one cop had said. We move around the parking lot. Most people are just relaxing on camp chairs, drinking their beer. The police are ordering everyone to pack and go. If you move slowly, and you are unlucky you get arrested. Some guys say something inaudible and they are quickly nabbed and pushed into the vehicle. One man is having a quarrel with what appears like a young girlfriend and they too are arrested. We find some girls in a commotion with a group of guys, accusing them of stealing their cellphone. The men deny it, but the ladies are angry and threatening to beat them up. The police listen, but are reluctant to make any arrest because the vehicles are almost full. As we are about to leave them alone, one girl slaps the guy and a fight breaks out right before the police. More arrests are made and the vehicles are packed. We cannot all fit in, so we have to walk from Botshabelo Bar to the station with some of the officers.
00:40 – Back to Station
The arrested group is put into a hall at the police station and the officers start to read them their charges. Some are still angry, while others have given up saying they were just having their drink.
00:50 – Midnight snack
The police do not get any food during their midnight shift. Journalists complain of hunger and luckily, there is 24-hour restaurant nearby. We grab snacks and before long the police arrive to pick us up for a second leg of patrol, this time in the Metsimotlhabe area.
01:13 – Top Centre bar
Our patrol troop leader is wielding a rubber-bullet gun and we disperse some few people sitting outside the bar. Some shout insults in the dark.
01:35 – Three Ways Bar
We find a hitchhiker and pick him up. He says he is a kwasakwasa dancer and his boss left him at the gig. The police search him and find music CDs in the bag together with his dancing attire. He was going to walk over five kilometres home that night. A man gets arrested after he bolts out of darkness after seeing the police. Although the arresting officers fall facedown through the chase, the suspect is finally caught. The suspect says he was running away because his mates were running too.
01:45 – Taxi Bar
We find men drinking quietly at some shelter next to a bar. They are quickly surrounded and searched. The cops tell them to go home and they oblige but one man, heavily inebriated, walks too slowly and reluctantly. The young cops shout at him telling him to rush home. He does not like the cops shouting at him and wants to tell them to stop.
They then quickly arrest him. Along the way going back to station the man is getting angry questioning why he is arrested. He looks at me and says, “Wa bona mfethu, vandag ga kea etsa neks. Neks!”