Five men sent to jail for transporting illegal immigrants from Ethiopia
Francistown Magistrate Court on Tuesday (October 8, 2024) slapped five men, two Batswana and three Zimbabweans with a two-year jail term each for human trafficking.
The two Batswana, Saviana Gaerope and Kagiso Madia together with their three Zimbabweans partners in crime, Dumisane Ncube, Llyod Chikwama and William Shoniwa whose ages range between 30 to 40 were nabbed by the police transporting10 illegal Ethiopians by in Tonota on Saturday.
The police first pounced on Gaerope and Madia with a minibus full of Ethiopians who did not have travelling documents coming from Ramokgwebana border.
The Ethiopians are Mohammedur Fayissa, Mihueto Daniel, Bulloy Alumu, Dana Sulto, Mesrat Tafessa, Biruk Teshoma, Masfin Mekuru, Darsa Solomon, Adam Demechu and Marhum Mathewos.
When busted, the two local men told the police that they were to hand over the the illegal immigrants to Shoniwa who was then to drive them to someone else in Serule who was also to hand them over to another person in another town who was to take them to South Africa.
They then led the police to Shoniwa who was found in the company of Ncube and Chikwama and they were also arrested.
All the five men pleaded guilty and asked for a non custodial sentence.
Madia told the court that he was to be paid 1500 for transporting the Ethiopians and that he was arrested before he could receive his payment “I plead with this court to be lenient with me when passing the sentence because I have a small child and if I go to prison, I will lose my job,” he said.
The two Zimbabweans (Chikwama and Shoniwa) also confessed in court that they knew the Ethiopians were coming and that they were supposed to transport them to someone else who was waiting for them in Serule.
Shoniwa said Ncube did not know anything about the Ethiopians ” I just gave him a lift and when I was arrested, he was also in the car. I am the one who was to transport them to Serule,” he said. However in the end Ncube also pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced accordingly.
Shoniwa disclosed that he was to be paid P8000 for transporting the Ethiopians but had not been paid yet at the time of his arrest
Imposing a custodial sentence, Magistrate, Tshepo Magetse noted that human trafficking is a serious problem in Botswana and that the courts have to pass sentences that will send a strong message to those who want to commit a similar offence.
Meanwhile the 10 Ethiopians have been remanded in custody after confessing to have paid their traffickers to ferry them to South Africa.
“They smuggled us and since we left our country, we were being transferred from one car with a different driver to another. It was an organized group, and we paid for that, ” said Mohammedur Fayisaa who said they did not know that they needed travelling documents to pass through Botswana on their way to South Africa.
One of the reliable sources who opted to remain anonymous indicated that the 10 Ethiopians are from the Cabaret tribe, which likes moving to South Africa. “The Cabaret are found in a rural areas and most of them do not venture out to the capital city of Ethiopia to but here they are migrating to SA,” she said.
