22 Feb 2017

Residents of Lesoma in the Chobe District have expressed displeasure at the increasing house break-ins that have become a major concern for the residents.

Speaking at a kgotla meeting convened by Kgosi Lesoma Lesoma and Botswana Police Services to discuss this issue, the residents stated that they were living in fear as they were terrorised by thieves who broke into their houses at night and they targeted flat screen televisions, laptops and smart phones.

Kazungula station comander Superintendent Mack Sonny explained that these crimes occured mostly during weekends when people were out, with thieves targeting those times to break into selected houses.

“To date, 13 cases of house break-ins have been recorded since October last year, with the last break-in on Sunday February 12, 2017, and property worth P1 000 stolen,” he said.

He said the thieves also seemed to target unoccupied houses and unmanned lodges and upon realising that the crimes were getting worse by the day, the police and Lesoma Kgosi decided to call a gathering to come up with ways to stabilise the situation and find solutions to try put an end to this with the help of the community.

The residents believe that the culprits behind all these are locals, as they seem to know the exact houses to break in and what times the house owners are unavailable.

Superintendent Sonny noted however that non-citizens may still be involved as the trails always lead to the Zimbabwe border line.

He also did not rule out the likelihood that the culprits might stage crossing the border with the stolen goods as a strategy to stop the police from investigating further.

“Lesoma is very bushy, so patrolling with cars makes it hard as the thieves can spot us from afar and hide, making it difficult for us to see them. As such, we have decided to start focusing on foot patrols,” he said.

Kgosi Lesoma also encouraged the public to have dogs in their homes, so that they can help alert them of any movements at night and also highlighted the importance of strengthening neighborhood watches in his village. BOPA