Botswana to use cell phone jammers in prisons

Botswana’s defence and justice minister intends to purchase cellphone jammers to trace handsets smuggled into prisons.

Cellphone jammers are used to prevent mobile phones from receiving signals from base stations.

Minister Ramadeluka Seretse has said the equipment would track mobile calls made by handsets smuggled into prisons, usually used by inmates in crime scheming activities and harassing witnesses outside prisons.

The development; however, comes against Botswana's Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA) standing on the use of cell phone jammers.

“We can’t just sit and do nothing when prisoners themselves smuggle phones inside prisons and we are told the cell phone jammers are illegal,” said Seretse.

“This is not the first incident there are instances where phones are intercepted but there is nowhere in the law that clearly explains that phones should not be intercepted,” he added.

Seretse has proposed a budget of P20 million that will be used for prisons computerisation.

Botswana's commissioner of prisons colonel Silas Setlalekgosi has also defended the purchase of mobile phone jammers.