05 Dec 2017

There will be a challenge of road safety when new malls in Palapye open, divisional commander - North Central, Mr Christopher Mbulawa has observed.

Speaking at a meeting with state media  recently, where he sought, among other things, a working relationship with the media and build trust and rapport, Mr Mbulawa said that the safety concerns stem from the fact that new malls were situated at one side of the ever-busy A1 road while the residential plots were on the other.

The location therefore dictates that people cross over the A1 to access the new malls like the one in front of Lotsane Senior School and the Palapye Junction Mall, situated at the old bus rank.

However, the North Central divisional commander said that plans were afoot to ameliorate the looming danger to road users, especially pedestrians.

Mr Mbulawa said that there was a likelihood of permanent deployment of police officers at such stations to control traffic and help spare lives.

He said that the police were still concerned that people were still losing lives through road accidents, especially along the A1 highway. He said that for the past 10 days seven lives were lost along A1 highway.

On other issues, Mr Mbulawa said that his policing area was recording high rape and murder cases. Although he allayed fears that his area was not in crisis in terms of road accidents and crime, Mr Mbulawa said that they have devised plans to address the public at every available forum to sensitise them about crime.

He said that female police officers in his division had held a successful operation dubbed ‘operation basadi’ bordering on gender-based violence and general crime, chiefly addressing issues of rape, assaults and murder inter alia.

Mr Mbulawa, who has served as Botswana Police Service spokesperson, said that he was planning to address Central District Council session on issues of concern so that councillors, being closer to the people, could relay their messages.
In the meantime, the North Central divisional commander said that the police would raid, stop, question and search suspects towards a crime free division.

He conceded that dagga was a concern in his division as was elsewhere and promised to nab the perpetrators.

For his part, officer commanding - District Two senior superintendent Paul Molapisi said that he had designated police officers who leave their stations every morning to sensitise people about gender-based violence, especially at drinking depots during the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.

He found that perpetrators of gender-based violence, especially rapists, were people closer or known to the victims, the very people who should be protecting them.

He also observed that such an ordeal like rape batters victims emotionally such that some fail to recover for the rest of their lives.

Mr Molapisi found that with many Batswana collecting DailyNews without fail it was such platforms that needed to be used to disseminate critical information for Batswana’s perusal. Ends