15 Feb 2023

Botswana Police Service (BPS) will continue to monitor the situation and adjust its strategies to ensure that the crimes were put under total control, Minister of Defence and Security, Mr Kagiso Mmusi has said.

Minister Mmusi was responding to a parliamentary question on Tuesday in which Member of Parliament for Tati West, Mr Simon Moabi had wanted to know if the ministry would consider other measures to curb Automated Teller Machine (ATM) bombings and armed robberies, including kidnappings, torturing of women and children and the increase of Gender

Based Violence (GBV) in the country.

Minister Mmusi told Parliament that concerted efforts by all law enforcement agencies led by the police service had made incidents of ATM bombings and armed robberies to be under control.

On other issues, the minister said cases of kidnappings were rarely recorded by the police, adding, ‘only one case was reported in the last five years’.

Regarding GBV, Mr Mmusi pointed out that the authorities had put in place measures to combat the scourge and the ministry had since opened child friendly centres at different police stations across the country, to provide a conducive environment where victims could be attended to without possible intimidation.

Further, the minister said the police continued to build capacity in dealing with GBV at both pre-service and in-service levels.

“Police involve the outreach in fighting all acts of crime through its outreach programmes targeting vulnerable groups such as students, youth, women and children. Both electronic and print media are used to disseminate anti-crime information, including GBV,” he added. ENDS