Botswana police implicated in death of Zimbabweans
By Tererai Karimakwenda
08 February 2007

The family of a Zimbabwean man who left Matabeleland last week and was discovered dead by a river over the weekend, has said they suspect foul play by Botswana police. 38-year old Cleophas Ntimeni from the St Joseph area of South Matabeleland intended to make it to greener pastures in South Africa via Botswana, but never made it alive.

Addmore Ncube became suspicious when a call came from Botswana police on Saturday informing him Cleophas was dead. According to Ncube the police acted strangely and the facts did not add up. This led to him investigating the matter further himself. It turned out the police knew information which only Cleophas could have provided while he was alive. There is also a cleric in Botswana who interacted with Cleophas before he died and he believes something is very suspicious. Cleophas left behind 3 kids and a wife who are now struggling to survive.

A cross border trader who disappeared after being stopped by Botswana police in December was also found dead recently. Her body was found only after a friend, who managed to escape at the time, took the family to the exact spot where they had been apprehended by Botswana police.
Ncube said the friend escaped while the trader was being assaulted. When she failed to turn up after some weeks, the friend told her family what had happened. Ncube said the Botswana police denied all knowledge of the incident.
We were not able to get hold of the Botswana police for comment.