Marathe stamps her authority
Pini Bothoko | Monday May 12, 2025 09:20
Marathe was transferred and appointed the Commissioner of Botswana Prison Service, becoming the first female commissioner of the department back in 2021. Then, she had left the BPS as a Deputy Commissioner and returned last year to head the institution that she had served for almost her entire adult life after joining the service at the age of 19 years as a police constable. Looking at the years she served and managed to climb the ladder across the ranks, her dedication to the service, Marathe has earned it through hard work, diligence and commitment. Her courage and fearlessness in the male-dominated environment indeed proved that Marathe is a capable candidate. Giving welcome remarks at the official opening of the just ended conference this week, Marathe pledged to inspire a motivated, high-performing police service in her bid to take the service to greater heights.
She outlined her vision for a disciplined, motivated and performance- driven police service under her leadership. She promised to commit to continuously exploring means and methods of improving police efficiency and effectiveness by amongst others, strengthening community policing platforms, re-engineering and simplifying key processes to be more customer and business friendly, whilst taking advantage of technology and innovation, in an effort to creating a peaceful environment for foreign direct investment and economic progress and prosperity. As one of her top priorities, Marathe illustrated deep concern about police welfare promising that she will do everything to improve their welfare. She pleaded with the President, Duma Boko who was a guest speaker at the conference that conditions of service for men and women in blue to receive his utmost attention. She revealed to be aware of the difficult fiscal environment facing the country at the moment but stated to be confident that the economy will bounce back and current challenges addressed. Marathe further affirmed her commitment to continuously improving police’s internal welfare schemes and to diversify scheme offerings and investment portfolios to benefit police officers. “It is evident that law enforcement achievements are largely attributable to the unwavering support we continue to receive from the government. We are grateful for the support, which mainly comes in the form of significant resource allocation and executive guidance,” said Marathe.
She further shared notable developments made towards improving service delivery effectiveness stating that the organisation is in the process of converting Special Constables into regular police officers, an exercise which is expected to be completed by next year (2026). “We are currently processing 846 Special Constables to undergo pre-service training, during the current financial year. I can confirm that this training will commence on 1st June 2025,” she said. Under her leadership, the service established police-public partnerships directorate to strengthen the co-ordination and effectiveness of police collaborations in tackling crime, which was followed by the hosting of a national crime prevention conference in March this year.
Marathe further revealed that the service is also in the final stages of establishing human rights desk and missing persons’ investigation unit, in an effort to professionalise their services in line with customer needs and expectations. She said the service is also in the process of amending the Police Act revealing that the draft and the regulations are with the office of the Attorney General (AG) for review, including regulations for the Arms and Ammunition Act. To further illustrate her seriousness in rebranding the service, Marathe also disclosed that work towards enacting Police Veterans Act has also commenced. Addressing police infrastructure, the commissioner pleaded with the government to continue investing more in police estate in order to improve the standard of police stations and staff accommodation. She said progress on some major projects have been made. Regarding the expansion of safer city project in Gaborone and Francistown, she highlighted that the project was progressing well albeit a bit behind schedule due to financial and configuration challenges. Regarding works that were carried out at police forensic science laboratory, Marathe said a new contractor has since been appointed to complete as the project is currently pending finalisation of electrical works. She revealed that the initial sub-contractor had to be terminated due to poor performance. “The construction of 28 police stations project is being implemented by two appointed developers is progressing well with structures at different stages of construction. Moreover, work for the construction of prefabricated porta cabin accommodation for 360 officers is ongoing with an expected completion date of July, 2025,” Marathe said.
Meanwhile, Marathe said since the world has moved digitally, there is a need for the service to invest more in law enforcement technology, in order to respond effectively to contemporary crime challenges. She therefore, requested the government to resource the service at all levels with technological equipment in order to meet its modern day demands on public security. “I am aware that this will come at a high cost but I also know that it is at the core of your heart. Policing is by its nature and form, a highly demanding and stressful work, providing 24-hour service to Batswana. The work constitutes processing a highly dynamic and volatile security environment, characterised by increasing high tech and complex crimes and social ills, confronting and apprehending violent and elusive criminals; and attending to horrific scenes,” Marathe said.
In addition, Marathe said even though the police are doing everything in making sure that Batswana are safe and secure, the performance of non-core duties by the police which include the provision of prosecutorial services, offering investigative support to other agencies, performing escort duties, crowd management, traffic lights control and many other support functions outside police work remain a challenge to the service. “These diversified, highly demanding and mentally challenging roles leave officers with little time to rest or interact with families and friends, or even accessing necessary psychological and counselling services, which are critical towards maintaining a healthy workforce. In other countries these duties are not done by police officers,” she said. Marathe said a number of institutions currently rely heavily on police officers seconded to their agencies to support their operations. “It is evident that the BPS is counted amongst a few organisations that provide critical support to facilitate good performance to sister organisations. It is on the basis of this demanding call to public service that I humbly, request that their conditions of service should receive your utmost attention,” Marathe pleaded.
Regarding performance of the service for the year 2024, as compared to 2023, Marathe said during this period, the service realised an overall reductions of 8% in total crime, 11% in penal code offences, and 15% in violent and serious crimes, which include break-ins, robberies, rape, defilement, threat to kill, murder, stock-theft and theft of motor vehicle. “During the first quarter of 2025, violent and serious crimes maintained a downward trend, having realised an 8% reduction. Despite this notable performance, our immediate concern is the harrowing level of violence and brutality displayed in the commission of certain crimes such as rape, murder, and robbery,” Marathe said. However, Marathe said in response, the service continues to strengthen community policing, embracing law enforcement technology to enhance crime detection and investigation, and enforce public education campaigns to sensitise communities on crime and its impact on community lives to mention but a few.