Police quell stampede at F/Town labour offices

FRANCISTOWN: With unemployment rate rising menacingly, fuelled by the rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in Botswana, some people still have high hopes of getting jobs despite all odds.

However, the quest for the little job opportunities that may arise nearly caused pandemonium at the regional labour offices here on Monday when scores of job seekers stormed the offices in search of openings, mainly piece jobs. According to sources who witnessed the incident at the offices, located at the Light Industrial Site in Francistown, the job seekers were pushing and shoving one another with the hope of being the first to have their names on the registry of job seekers.

Sensing that the situation was getting out of control, the sources added, officials of the labour offices had to call the police and soldiers to make sure that the job seekers observed the COVID-19 protocols.

They made the call amidst a new and deadly strain of the virus that the COVID-19 Presidential Task Force officials say was now spreading throughout the country.

Sources who spoke to Mmegi said calm only returned following the arrival of the police and the BDP personnel. Central Police station commander, Lebalang Maniki confirmed the issue.

He said their main concern was that the job seekers were not observing the COVID-19 protocols, despite the increasing number of cases in the country.

“The police were called to control the situation at the labour offices after a report was made that people who went to the offices to look for jobs were not observing the coronavirus guidelines,” said Maniki.

“As a safety measure, we asked officials of the labour offices to limit the number of people who come to the labour offices to register for job opportunities.

However, we are happy that after we arrived at the offices, people who were looking for jobs started to observe the COVID-19 protocols.”