20 Nov 2019

Crime prevention is one of priorities for Botswana Police Service’s top agendas as the police service. 

Speaking at a one-day business crime watch workshop in Jwaneng on November 19, Officer Commanding No 14 District, Senior Superintendent Banneetse Keakile, said in that light, police stations were expected to conduct workshops as a way of getting in touch with stakeholders. 

He said public education on crime prevention initiatives was vital and that the public through community clusters had potential to assist the police uproot crime. 

“This then makes it a necessity to intensify our efforts in being in touch with the community and encourage them to be more involved in community clusters,” he said. 

Senior Supt Keakile also cautioned that the current trend of crime was so sophisticated that perpetrators often planned well before executing their intentions, so police were expected to be able to analyse and share the results with stakeholders. 

“These days criminals make thorough planning such as when and where to strike. The trend is that they prefer weekends when the movement of people is minimal and tend to select places far from police stations because they know the police would likely take a longer time to respond,” he said. 

Giving the breakdown of common criminal activities that involve businesses in Jwaneng, Senior Supt Keakile said most common offence was theft common. They registered 27 such cases in 2017 and 41 last year. 

He said other common crimes were storeroom break-ins in which valuable goods were stolen. He said all these need businesses to revisit strategies to bring safety to their businesses, which included making sure they employ trustworthy people. 

Senior Supt Keakile also urged business people to implore their security guards to always be vigilant for any suspicious people and vehicles around their premises especially around closing times and after hours. 

Jwaneng Mine senior security manager, Mr Thatayaone Keitumetse indicated that crime remained a source of concern for businesses and therefore implored the business community to commit resources and funds towards combating such. 

He also said being active in community clusters could go a long way in achieving that and that only when the community acted against crime would the criminal activities be frustrated. 

Mr Keitumetse also said the community had to pledge support to the police. 

For her part, Ms Pearl Kelaotswe from the Department of Trade and Consumer Affairs said even though most crimes in business were perpetrated by the community, businesses were not totally absolved. 

She said common criminal activities by businesses included unorthodox practices such as pricing in foreign currency, selling of expired goods and selling second hands goods, but failing to disclose that to customers among others. 

“In trading, all has to be fair and disclosed to the consumer,” she said. Ms Kelaotswe also advised the business operators to provide their staff with uniforms and name tags, saying that this would help prevent consumers falling prey to criminals that purport to be shop assistants. 

Ms Kelaotswe also said they were expecting to soon put in operation a new Act that would compel shops to provide a warranty for their goods at a minimum of six months. She was responding after attendants complained that some traders, especially of Asian shops do not give warranty on their products. 

The attendants also called for the department of trade and consumer affairs to intensify their public education as consumers continue to be exploited by traders due to lack of knowledge of their rights. 

Other criminal activities by businesses included failure to declare tax returns to BURS. 

Other stakeholders at the workshop included FNB Botswana who drilled attendants on common banking crimes such as ATM card clowning, ewallet scam and cheque book fraud among others. 

The theme of the workshop was; Broadening Community Participation in Community Policing by 2036 and Beyond. Ends