Butale�s new Kgosi cracks the whip
Pini Bothoko | Friday August 29, 2014 15:21
Butale and nearby villages such as Tshesebe, Senyawe and Mowana have experienced rising levels of youth-perpetrated crimes against community members, police say.
Law enforcement say between January and August, 21 youths in Tshesebe were charged with theft common, with five in Senyawe and one in Mowana. Besides theft common, leading offences include common nuisance, housebreak-ins, common assault, public fighting and others.
Last Friday, police gave a grim report of the situation in Butale at a meeting held by North East District (NED) youth to come up with ways to combat both the scourge and HIV/AIDS, which is also said to be rampant in the village.
Khachana plans to keep the wave of crime out of his village and says he will soon be meeting with elders in the area to map the way forward.
The newly coronated chief said crime was a worrisome situation which he would move quickly to address in order to create a safe environment for residents.
“I have delivered the report of the crime in the village to the elders and have decided to hold a Kgotla meeting to urge youths to refrain from crime,” he told Mmegi.
“However, apart from that, we will strengthen the law. “We will take action against those who commit crime because most of the time, youth are merely warned verbally and thus become emboldened to continue committing crimes without fear of retribution. “This time we will make sure they are punished.”
Tshesebe Police Sub-Inspector, Libumbo Lebala, says crime in the North Eastern villages is mainly perpetrated by the youth.
According to his data, Tshesebe – the largest of the three villages – had the highest crime rate of the areas in his cluster. “There is an offence called theft common,” Lebala explains.
“In the past eight months, we charged 21 youth in Tshesebe with this offence. We had five offenders from Senyawe and only one at Mowana village.
“In another offence of common nuisance, two youths from Tshesebe were charged with one from Senyawe.”
Lebala says while people used to sleep peacefully outside their houses in the past, these have nowadays become virtual prisons for their owners.
“One has to ensure that they provide maximum security in their homes to have peace of mind,” he says.
Of particular concern to police is that a great number of the crimes are committed by youths under the influence of alcohol.
“We recently arrested 10 youths in Tshesebe for fighting in public. This is a concern to us, especially at month-end, as people act under the influence of alcohol,” he said.
Mowana youth, however, are bucking the trend as Lebala notes that many spend their leisure time in sport and entertainment activities and are not known for alcohol abuse.