Botswana: Defence Ministry resumes all services, says Matshidiso Bokole

Botswana's Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Justice, and Security, Matshidiso Bokole has said that all departments that fall under her ministry have resumed services, according to a news report by Daily News.

Speaking at a press briefing, Bokole said that from June 01, Prison visits would commence, adding that they would be restricted to one visitor per prisoner per day for remands and illegal immigrants, while convicts would be allowed one visitor per month.

She said legal practitioners would continue to visit their clients in prison, adding that register for prison visitors had been designed to facilitate contact tracing.

Bokole said that Prison workshops had been opened but with limited numbers of five customers per workshop per day.

On Botswana Defence Force and Botswana Police Service, Bokole thanked the public for the cooperation with the law enforcement officers during the period of extreme social distancing.

"We still urge the public to maintain this spirit even during the period where restrictions of movement have been eased and it is worth noting that there have not been significant violations with regards to inter-zonal movements," she said

Matshidiso Bokole also said that they had intensified border patrols especially for people using illegal points of entry as well as control of the movement of people across zones.

She encouraged the public to use gazetted points of entry and urged Batswana to be vigilant and report incidents of lawlessness.

Furthermore, she said issuance of private security services licenses would commence on June 01 adding that licenses that expired during extreme social distancing period would be renewed without any penalties while those that expired prior to the extreme social distancing period would attract a P1000 penalty fee.