05 May 2014

The chairperson of Phizha cluster, Mr John Phambuka has said they needed close to P230 000 to purchase a porta cabin that will be used by the police and the community at Donga Extension.



Speaking at the end of a 20 kilometre sponsored walk that was aimed at raising funds for the porta cabin on Saturday, May 3 Mr Phambuka noted that although the response of individuals was impressive, the business community in the area was still lagging behind.



He appealed to the business community to be partakers as government alone and individuals could not manage to fight crime.



Mr Phambuka said with the realisation that their area was hard hit by criminal activities such as murders, theft and burglary; the cluster came up with the idea of having a porta cabin in the area.



Furthermore, he said one of the concerns in Phizha area, made up of Donga, Donga Extension, Tsunami and Impala, was youth delinquency and they have engaged the out of school youth in various activities to keep them away from criminal activities.



He said so far 75 out of school youth were registered and they were divided in groups of interests such as art, agriculture, football and basketball.



The chief walker, Mr Morgan Moseki commended Phizha cluster’s initiatives, adding that they were in line with the 2016 Vision pillar of a safe and secure nation.



Mr Moseki said crime prevention called for cooperation and shared responsibilities between the police and all stakeholders as government agencies alone could not solve the public safety problems.



He noted that community policing emphasised proactive problem solving in a systematic and routine manner, rather than responding to crime only after it occurred.



On other issues, Mr Moseki implored clusters to purchase horse shoes for their horses in order for them to be effective even in tarred roads.

Earlier on, Francistown police acting station commander, Assistant Superintendent Edward Leposo said between October last year and March this year, there was a decline of 44 cases in the targeted offences in the Phizha area.


He however said although there was a decline, crime such as house breaking-ins and theft, store breaking, burglary and theft as well as murder have increased.
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