23 Aug 2022

Mahalapye Police have reported an increase in the number of offences relating to property.

This was revealed by Mahalapye Sub-district Council chairperson, Mr Bantlhasetse Merementsi in his remarks during the 3rd session of the sub-council on Monday.

Mr Merementsi said from April to June, Mahalapye police recorded 132 incidents, which was a 20 per cent increase from 110 incidents recorded in the same period last year.

He said although they had not managed to reduce the incidents of offences relating to property, Mahalapye police had recorded a decrease in the number of burglary and house breaking incidents as well as theft.

The chairperson said the increase in these offences was attributable to a number of factors, such as; business premises not having any crime detection security devices or the services of night watchmen; small stock kraaled and left alone at the lands; repeated offenders roaming the streets due to delay in prosecution of cases and the community’s general low participation in fighting crime.

Mr Merementsi said there was also an increase in offences related to persons, adding that there were 95 cases from April to June, against 91 recorded in the same period last year, which was a four per cent increase.

Furthermore, he said there was an increase in rape and attempted rape incidents as well as threat to kill cases, attributed to alcohol abuse, revealling that most of the incidents occurred at bars and shebeens.

Meanwhile, he said Botswana Police Services was conducting school outreach programmes, as well as public education in kgotla meetings to mitigate the prevalence of gender-based violence.

On road traffic accidents, he said 324 cases were detected against a set target of 898 cases.

This, he said, was a decrease of eight per cent.

He, however, said seven accidents, resulting in eight fatalities were also recorded during the quarter under review.

He said there was also an increase in the number of serious cases, as police recorded 23 cases against a set target of 14, which was an increase of 64 per cent.

Mr Merementsi said the police had put some initiatives such as 24-hour highway patrols, daily sporadic roadblocks across the district, drunken driving operations and daily roadside lectures in place to save lives. ENDS