Mmusi applauds police
Pini Bothoko | Monday March 7, 2022 06:00
Mmusi revealed this when quizzed by Mmegi on what could be the immediate solution to the crime that is growing in sophistication and occurrence. Armed robbers continue to stage heists even during the day, overpowering security guards and making off with large sums of money something that has forced the police to provide escorts. Of recent, the crime landscape has completely changed as demonstrated by the latest strings of robberies the country has never witnessed with the police resorting to killing criminals as it is currently the case.
The minister conceded that crime has grown and its landscape has changed but said a solution has been identified pointing out police’s escorts as the immediate solution. “The Botswana Police Service's (BPS) move to step in to help private security companies with escorts came at the right time when armed robbers were causing havoc getting away with large sums of money. The escorts are bearing fruits because we have been thwarting cash-in-transit heists. Yes, armed robberies do occur but I am happy that of recent the police have been able to make a breakthrough, recover the stolen money and arrest suspects,” Mmusi said.
He expressed fear that the repeated occurrence of cash-in-transit heists is likely to affect the country’s economy in the long run. Mmusi stated that investors are interested in investing in a crime free country and the continuous heists are definitely not helping the situation. “We recently held a workshop with private security companies talking about this sophisticated crime and efforts are in place to help us curb cash-in-transit heists. It is a continuous discussion hence confident that we will soon win this scourge,” he said. There has been a public outcry for private security guards to be allowed to carry guns when transporting large sums of money. Asked if they have any plans to allow security guards to be armed when transporting cash, Mmusi said currently the law does not allow and there has been no discussions surrounding that issue as yet.
However, the minister promised that as the ministry they will do everything they can to fight crime. “This is a war and the ministry will continue to come up with new ways of fighting crime.
I am currently happy with the police’s move to escort cash-in-transit vehicles because it has since proven to be effective,” Mmusi said. Recently when asked how the escorts have affected police resources, the police commissioner Keabetswe Makgophe said despite their limited resources, they were forced to step in and rescue the situation. He stated that they were forced to provide security companies with escorts because the repeated robberies were threatening the country’s economy. “Escorts are expensive and we have limited resources but we couldn’t just sit back and leave that to be a security company problem. We have decided to assist with cash-in-transit escorts but as a temporary solution because security companies are also looking at how best they can do their business.
This was a brilliant idea because foreign investors are interested in investing in a crime free country,” Makgophe said. Makgophe further stated back in 2020 they were also forced to step in and provide their services to help the government to fight the spread of COVID-19 using the same resources. “We did not have any extra budget for COVID-19. We continued to use our limited resources to help curb the spread of the virus. We also do not have specific budgets for cash-in-transit vehicle escorts but we will continue to help with our limited resources,” Makgophe said.