Harare – A Zimbabwean senator has reportedly condemned the ill-treatment of Zimbabweans working in Botswana, saying they are working without pay and even being whipped in the neighbouring country.

The state-controlled Chronicle newspaper said on Thursday that the senator from the ruling Zanu-PF party, Tapera Machingauta, had claimed that some Zimbabweans were being offered jobs in Botswana but were deported on payday without being paid.

Reports of Zimbabweans being ill-treated and whipped in Botswana have always made headlines, as large numbers of Zimbabweans continue to cross into the neighbouring country in search of work amid economic hardships back home.

In July, the Herald newspaper reported that at least nine Zimbabweans sustained severe injuries after they were whipped on the buttocks with switches by a chief’s security forces in Botswana.

The nine were caned for allegedly entering the country illegally.

Machingauta said Zimbabweans were peace-loving people whose hospitality was not reciprocated in Botswana.

“The diabolic thing about the Tswanas (Batswanas) is that they make these people work and when it’s month end they deport them without pay,” Machingauta was quoted as saying.

Machingauta added: “Some of these Zimbabweans are whipped. When a crime is committed they are taken to chiefs and the chiefs have a right to hit somebody on the buttocks… But when these Tswanas come into our country whether as refugees or visitors, we are hospitable to them.”