A bloody Friday at Francistown bus rank

A student was stabbed with a knife and rushed to Nyangabgwe Hospital where he was treated and discharged on Friday following a skirmish between rival groups of various Francistown secondary schools at the bus rank.

The incident took place in the evening between 7 and 8 pm in full view of elders. When the fights started, everybody who was within earshot started taking cover to avoid being hit by stray bottles or stones.

The situation was put under control by Botswana Police Service para-military squad which arrived on the scene before making several arrests. One student told this publication that the fight was caused by some overexcited and drunk Form 3 students who had just finished writing their final exams on the same day. It turns out that the rival groups have been itching to sort each other out but could not do so as they wanted to finish their exams first.

Francistown Central Police station commander Superintendent Lebalang Maniki confirmed the incident. “One student was stabbed with a knife by another who is yet to be identified by the police investigating team. During the search of students at the bus rank, a very large okapi knife was retrieved from one of the students who was later charged for being found in possession of an offensive weapon,” he said.