Botswana repatriates 13 Zimbabwean children

The Botswana government has repatriated 13 Zimbabwean children found in the country without travel documents, police spokesman Christopher Mbulawa said on Monday.

The children were found in a minibus in Francistown last month, on their way to South Africa with two men, who later appeared in court in Botswana, a Sapa correspondent reported.

The Francistown High Court later convicted Innocent Ncube, 30, and Nathaniel Gumbo, 28, of aiding people to enter the country without travel documents.

They were sentenced to corporal punishment, which had since been administered.

The immigration department repatriated the children, aged three to 13, once the case was finalised.

According to Botswana’s Magistrates’ Courts Act of 1974 magistrates may impose a sentence of whipping.

Women may however not be subjected to this punishment, according to the country’s Penal Code. Crimes punishable by corporal punishment include sexual offences, crimes related to murder, assault, robbery, and travelling by train without a ticket. Sapa