Unavailability Of Police Station Fuels Crime – Molao

Delays in the construction of the two longawaited police stations in the Shashe West constituency is fuelling criminal activity in the area, The Monitor has learnt.

Alarmed by the crime rate in his area as a result of the unavailability of a police station, Member of Parliament (MP) for Shashe West, Fidelis Molao has appealed to the Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Kagiso Mmusi to consider the construction of a police station. When commenting on the Defence ministry’s 2021-2022 recurrent and development budget proposals, Molao said the long wait for the construction of Sebina and Marapong police stations in his constituency can go a long way in reducing crime.

“It’s more than 10 years since the people of

Shashe West constituency have been waiting for the construction of the Sebina and Marapong police stations. I am pleading with you to look into this matter because it is close to the people of my constituency who are being tormented by criminal activities, especially the escalating stock theft cases,” he said.

Molao added the residents were promised the police station by former president Festus Mogae and to date they are looking forward to its construction, something they are no longer pleased with.

“Batho ga ba ka ke ba nna pelotelele mogo kana mme ba seka ba fiwa sepe, re nnile pelotelele go lekane. The people of Shashe West constituency have been patient for a very long time and it is enough. We are pleading for a police station because the people have long been promised Sebina and Marapong police stations in kgotla meetings by former presidents. We have been patient for years, it’s enough. This unavailability is fuelling crime because people commit offences knowing that the police would respond late,” he said.

He added that land for the construction of the two police stations have long been allocated and feared the plots might end up being used for something else. Furthermore, Molao asked the Defence minister to consider allocating vehicles to the police posts of Mathangwane, Sebina and Borolong villages respectively in order to respond to reports timeously.

“For a vehicle to travel from Francistown to attend to a report in Matsitama village, by the time the police arrive at the crime scene they might struggle to collect the evidence.

People might end up accusing the service of failure whilst the problem is the distance between the police station and the people it serves. Stock theft in my area is a concern, especially within Matsitama, Makobo and Jamataka villages,” he said. Mmusi had requested P8,390,415,480 for the recurrent budget for the year 2021-2022, an increase of P246,443,860 or three percent of the 2020-2021 financial year’s authorised expenditure of P8,143,971,620.

Mmusi also applauded the police for their efforts to continue to involve deployment of public safety infrastructure (safer city), enhancement of visibility, focussed response to crime and partnerships with the community.

“Offences relating to property went down by nine percent whilst those against the person increased by 7.4 percent. Cumulatively, the two categories of offences decreased by 3.7 percent from 13,807 cases recorded in 2019 to 13,294 cases in 2020.

However, murder, threat-to-kill, rape and defilement, which correlates with gender-based violence (GBV) have increased.”