11 Sep 2013

Crime in the country has a youthful face in the sense that both victims and perpetrators are mostly youth.

The Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Mr Dikgakgamatso Seretse said this at Ramotswa crime prevention consultative meeting on September 9.  “It is youth against youth,” minister Seretse remarked.

The minister noted with concern that statistics showed young people were the ones mostly involved and affected by crime. He thus stressed the need to reach out to the youth with crime prevention awareness and education messages.

He further noted that many young people now associated themselves with pentecostal churches, and called on the society to embrace those churches and reach out to their members for the benefit of the country.

District authorities and other stakeholders were also called upon to include crime prevention in their projects development agenda. Often, Minister Seretse, said crime prevention was regarded as an afterthought after projects had been completed.

“Crime from the government perspective will not be prevented by the ministry of defence justice and security alone, crime prevention is multi dimensional,” he said. The minister said crime prevention started at family level and if parents fail to produce disciplined children, the community would have many social ills.

Mr Seretse complained that parents had abdicated their responsibility to instil morality and expected the government to play that role, which was not possible.
Parents should know it is their responsibility to mould their children into responsible and law abiding citizens, he stressed. He also noted that it was the responsibility of community leaders to mobilise members to wage a war against crime.

Earlier when welcoming the minister, Kgosi Mosadi of Balete pointed out that crime incidents had increased in the Ramotswa policing area. Kgosi Mosadi attributed the rise in crime to various reasons such as lack of community involvement, shortage of police officers and shortage of police vehicles in Ramotswa.

The consultative meeting had brought together district authorities such dikgosi, political leaders, ministers fraternal, heads of government departments, village development committee members and farmers’ association members, among others. Ends