22 Mar 2015

Defence, justice and security  minister, Mr Shaw Kgathi has assured Parliament that security agents will be as aggressive as the law allows to stem out the disturbing tide of criminal attacks on school children, women and the elderly.

Responding to a question in Parliament on Friday March 20 , Mr Kgathi noted that he was not going to share specific deployment tactics that would tell the suspects what they were doing.

“I am aware of reported incidents of cases of crime affecting school children, women and the elderly. You can see by looking at the pattern of statistics that it is fluctuating on an increasing trend and that alone is worrisome,” he said.

Mr Kgathi, who is also MP for Bobirwa said 245 of such incidents were reported in 2012 and the numbers dropped to 168 the following year while last year the numbers sky rocketed to 300. The minister called for concerted efforts from all stakeholders and pleaded with legislators to heed the call to protect vulnerable people.

He said the Botswana Police Service has put in place a multifaceted strategy to combat the situation and also intensified patrols at crime prone areas and also put up a robust public education campaign which “I am appealing that you should help.”

“We have also deployed non-uniformed officers and rapid response teams. Airborne policing will assist in detection of crime and also engaged Batswana in crime prevention through community and cluster policing,” he added.

Member of Parliament for Kanye South, Mr Abram Kesupile had presented a question to the minister on the increasing criminal attacks on school children, women and elderly, motivated by criminal intent and the desire for current assets such as cash, computers, cellphones and jewelry.

He pleaded with the minister to consider treatment and protection of vulnerable people to be an objective of the new vision that was being contemplated for purposes of making protection effective.

He also suggested to the minister to consider supporting a motion calling for Femicide law. For his part, MP for Gabane-Mmankgodi, Major General Pius Mokgware advised the minister to formulate a policy where there would be an area per number of police officers to look at since it was currently easy to identify areas of great concern.

MP for Gaborone North, Mr Haskins Nkaigwa said satellite police stations played a major role in police visibility especially in areas such as Gaborone.Molepolole South MP, Dr Tlamelo Mmatli asked the minister to come up with a strategy that would include areas close to Gaborone and prone to crime like Mmanoko. ENDS