Manzini revives Crime Prevention Forum
MANZINI – As the crime rate is on the rise in the country, stakeholders of Manzini have revived their Crime Prevention Forum and duly developed a strategic plan.
This was revealed by the Manzini Crime Prevention Forum Committee, which is chaired by Mandla Khumalo, during its special meeting, which was held at Manzini National Library last week, where it met with businesses under the theme: ‘Less crime and more business’.
It was supported by the Municipal Council of Manzini, Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS), Eswatini Parking and Epitome Tactical, among others.
The forum’s strategic plan was presented by Eswatini Parking Managing Director (MD) Wiseman Magagula on behalf of the committee and he said there was no better time to unpack it than this festive season, where the rate of crime usually increased rapidly.
OTHER STRATEGIC PRIORITIES
He said their strategy fitted well to that of the municipality. He said this was because the Municipal Council of Manzini had a strategic target to achieve a safer city in the next four or five years and had pegged the improvement of public order, safety and security as top priority in the city’s 2019-2024 Integrated Development Plan (IDP).
Management
As a result, Magagula said the municipality was in the process of developing a public order, safety and security management strategy for the city as well as a collaboration framework with the Manzini police.
At the same time, he said the municipality was already rolling out a number of crime response activities in the city and they included crime prevention teams in each ward, introduction of neighbourhood watch schemes and support for community policing, together with regular raids in crime hot spots.
He said the main objective of the forum was to have a crime-free smart city and its surroundings, which would contribute to local and national economic growth.
Therefore, he said the strategy was prepared at a time when crime prevention was being continuously improved globally and this included; the utilisation of high technology methods and equipment such as closed-circuit television (CCTV).
With technology, he said businesspeople could monitor movements at their business anytime and anywhere, even from the comfort of their home. In that regard, he said as the forum’s committee; they encouraged businesses to tap into the use of high technology methods and equipment.
“There is a great need to apply relevant smart and proactive security strategies and move away from the outdated traditional approaches, especially for businesses with high security risks. This is because crime is always evolving,”
Magagula said.
Again, he said they also had a strong focus on crime prevention as crime in itself was a major deterrent to meaningful investment and ranked highly in risk profiling of companies before they could make investment decisions. He then highlighted that the crime prevention committee strategy would come into effect at a time when there were various challenges in the country and the region, which included the civil unrest that was experienced in 2021in the country and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Threats
Furthermore, he said other external threats included; the stagnant economy - that had an effect on increasing crime rates as people from within and the outskirts of the city sought to survive.
Also, he said the change in the manner in which criminals conducted their business was rapid, with new crimes that included cybercrime and complicated fraud being on the rise.