Judge Key Dingake and family quarantined
BY SHARON MATHALA
JUSTICE Professor Key Dingake of the Supreme and National Courts of Papua New Guinea (PNG) was among the 300 Batswana quarantined in Gaborone on Wednesday night in the fight against COVID-19.
Cabinet on Monday took a decision to impose a mandatory 14-day isolation on everyone travelling into Botswana.
The former High Court Judge and his family were travelling from PNG via South Africa and landed at the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport (SSKIA) on Tuesday.
Justice Dingake’s daughter, 18-year-old Refilwe Dingake, who is currently isolated at the Institute of Health Sciences in Gaborone, said that the move by government to quarantine people coming into the country caught them by surprise.
Speaking to The Voice in an interview, she said that by Wednesday, they had not been supplied with sanitisers and warm water.
“We were mixed with travellers who came from high risk countries and we feel that we should have been separated to avoid putting us at risk. We are yet to be provided with sanitiser dispensers or at least soap for us to regularly wash our hands,” she narrated.
According to the young woman, government did not even take into consideration special dietary needs of Muslims and vegetarians.
In another dramatic turn of events, one of the quarantined persons dragged Botswana government to court yesterday in an urgent application complaining of the dirty environment they were kept in.
The urgent application was heard at the Lobatse High Court Wednesday late evening.
The woman’s lawyer, Sipho Ziga, said government had conceded and he had obtained a consent order.
“In essence, they agree the place the people have been kept is dirty,” Ziga explained.
Probed further, he said, “We were not arguing that the client shouldn’t be quarantined. What we were concerned about is the cleanliness of the area. As much as we want to prevent the spread of coronavirus, we should also guard against people contracting other diseases caused by filth, but government has since conceded so there is nothing to worry about.”