Crossing the line...
THREE years ago my wife and I visited Botswana for the first time since 1974, when we were leaving Zambia at the end of my three-and-a-half-year contract working at Livingstone General Hospital. In fact, we entered Botswana exactly 40 years after our previous entry. We enjoyed our visit in 2014 so much that we decided to return this year and we crossed the border at Ngoma Bridge in our motorhome on 13 March and stayed for two nights at a nearby campsite. On the morning of 15 March we set off, intending to drive to Kasane. We only reached the Chobe National Park control point, still at Ngoma Bridge, where we had our first and only meeting with officers of the Botswana Police Force.
I knew I would have to stop and fill in details of the vehicle, so I was looking out for directions from officials at the control point. At the first hut a lady in uniform who was stretched out on a deckchair lazily waved me on. As I reached the second hut I could see a number of people, including one female police officer, but they all seemed to be engaged in an extreme relaxation exercise and apparently took no notice of me, so I drove on to the road sign shown in the background of the photo and stopped there, believing it to be the control point.
Suddenly the hut became a hive of activity and a second policewoman appeared and waved me back to a stop sign, where she informed me that I would be fined 1,000 Pula (about £80) for failing to comply with a road sign.
My wife and I were instructed to enter the hut, where we were subjected to a tirade about respect for the laws, president, police force etc of Botswana. Every attempt to explain how I had come to cross the 'white line' (as you can see from the photo, the white line was a largely theoretical concept, having almost no physical existence) caused an increase in the volume of the tirade.
The entire proceedings were conducted at a level that would make the parade ground barking of a British RSM sound like a bedtime story read by Mariella Frostrup. During the outburst I was frequently sprayed with the officer's spittle, not a pleasant experience.
My late father was a police officer at a major UK port, so I do know how police duties can and should be carried out when dealing with foreign nationals. The treatment I received at the checkpoint did not comply with that standard.
The policewoman's manner was not a natural reaction to outrageous behaviour. It was clearly a deliberate and carefully rehearsed technique intended to intimidate the victim. When I added the words 'farewell Botswana' to my signature on the form she had filled in I was told that I would be arrested and held in a cell pending a court appearance for defacing an official document. My wife was instructed in the most officious way to leave Botswana immediately and without me, even after she explained that her driving licence did not allow her to drive the vehicle.
There was absolutely no suggestion that the officer was corrupt or acting beyond her authority. She made out what I assume is the correct paperwork without hesitation and her behaviour was witnessed and obviously supported by the remarkable number of fellow officers, some of senior rank, who were manning a minor control point. One briefly joined in, but his voice lacked the power to match her hysterical, xenophobic malice.
The only conclusion must therefore be that she was conscientiously carrying out the official policy of the government of Botswana.
When I suggested that the time had come for me to contact the British High Commission, the threat of arrest seemed to disappear and we were finally allowed to pay the fine and leave. We turned round and headed back to the border post, so we could leave Botswana as soon as possible.
The whole set-up at the control point has clearly been arranged to encourage unwary foreign drivers to commit technical breaches of minor traffic regulations and then to fine and harangue them for doing so. In any civilised country, this technique is known as entrapment and is illegal. Apparently this is not so in Botswana.
I am 72 years old and disabled by Parkinson's disease. I have always understood that a primary function of any police force is to protect vulnerable people like me from aggression, either physical or verbal. In the Botswana Police Force the words 'protect from' are seemingly replaced by 'subject to'.
I have since discovered that this was not an isolated incident but is happening to non-local drivers every day at police checkpoints all over Botswana.
Ironically, we also found out that the best of the Chobe River can be enjoyed just as well from the friendly Namibian side of the river.
Travellers to exotic places must accept a certain level of risk from criminals but when the threat comes from the force you would expect to protect you and seems to have full official backing, that is really scary.
BARRY PAIGE,
Address withheld.
