09 Nov 2014

The Botswana Police Service divisional commander (north), Assistant Commissioner Dinah Marathe has appealed to Maun community to work with police to fight crime during the festive season.

She made the appeal at a press conference in Maun on November 7 where she  also said Maun, as a tourism place, received a lot of people during the festive season, thus it was prone to increased crime and road accidents.

Asst Commissioner Marathe also noted that a lot of people would leave their places unoccupied and unguarded for a long time, which required active neighbourhood watch committees. She said the police could not manage alone, adding they did patrols not to guard homes.

Therefore, she encouraged people to make use of security companies to guard their homes during the vacations. “Security companies are ready to help people at a discount if people grouped themselves, and people should know their neighbours,” she said.

She said murder cases were on the increase in Maun and this worries them, stating that 21 murder cases were recorded in 2012, 18 in 2013 while 24 cases have been recorded so far before the end of 2014.

Furthermore, she said the other worrying crime, which the police needed to improve on was motor vehicle theft, which she said has shown an increase in Maun. She noted that rape cases were also worrisome since they proved difficult to control and could happen anywhere, at homes or night clubs.

In Maun alone, 174 rape cases were reported in 2012, 137 reported in 2013 while 135 cases were reported in 2014, she said. She said rape cases were exacerbated by factors such as a lot of entertainment in Maun and a few women were not aware of rape culprits in the reported cases.

However, she said the police hosted campaigns to raise awareness and empower women to report rape cases.

Meanwhile, Ms Marathe said the cluster committees’ partnership with the police in Maun has borne positive results as there has been significant reduction in house breaking, which were 292 in 2012, 148 in 2013 and only 78 cases recorded towards the end of this year.

She said other reduction in the store break-ins was believed to be a result of joint efforts between the police and the business community since 100 was recorded in 2012, 60 in 2013 and 48 recorded up to now in 2014.

“People should work together with the police and own the message of crime reduction,” she said. She added that alcohol was a contributor to road accidents and other crimes in Maun. ENDS