500 women raped & 80 murdered in Masvingo

MORE than 460 females, including juveniles were raped while 80 were murdered in Masvingo Province last year, a worrying trend despite awareness campaigns and arrests, police have said.

Addressing journalists during a Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) organised workshop on community reporting in Masvingo last week, the acting officer commanding police in the province, Assistant Commissioner Taonei Nyazema, said it was disturbing that despite the awareness campaigns and deterrent jail sentences, the province was still receiving high cases of rape.

Asst Comm Nyazema said most of the cases involved related people with some men sexually abusing their own daughters.

“Adult rape victims constitute 153 and these cases were committed in 2019 only. This is against 149 cases recorded the previous year. A total of 315 cases involved juveniles raping juveniles and this is against 293 cases recorded in the previous year,” he said.

Asst Comm Nyazema said this was happening against concerted efforts by the police to reduce the vice through awareness campaigns and other forms of communication.

“Despite our efforts as police to curb crime especially rape cases, the effects of cultural erosion have adversely impacted the commission of crimes of sexual nature such as aggravated indecent assault, rape and sodomy,” he said.

Turning to murder cases, he said police were worried about the high number of people killing each other.

“A total of 80 people were murdered in the province last year against 61 cases the previous year.

“The increase is due to various reasons like mental challenges, stress and depression,” he said.

Armed robbery cases were also on the increase, he said.

“We recorded a total of 52 armed robbery cases in 2019 compared to 25 in 2018. A total of 111 cases of robbery using different weaponry were also recorded in 2019 compared to 96 the previous year. Plain robbery cases shot to 220 from 188,” Asst Comm Nyazema said.

He also said police were working hard to eradicate the notorious and daring machete gangs which have caused havoc, terrorising innocent civilians, across the country.

“So far, 20 arrests have been made since January 2020. We are carrying out awareness campaigns and having meetings with traditional and local leaders.

“This presents excellent opportunities for confidence building in our clients. The provincial command managed to interface with 44 chiefs across the province in 2019, to improve co-operation.”

@walterbmswazie2