Burglary declines in Francistown's notorious location

LINDIWE MOZOLA
Correspondent | Tuesday January 17, 2012 00:00

According to Bojang, since December the police have recorded only two cases of house break-ins in Monarch.Bojang said that the situation has declined because of the active teams in Monarch from voluntary residents who were able to identify areas in Monarch were there is high rate of theft and then alert the police of the suspects.

'Cases of house break-ins in Monarch have declined because of the good work that is done by the active teams who are always on call and then alert the police,' says Bojang

In a further note he states that house burglary is common at night due to the fact that thugs are aware of people's movements and they know when they are not home for free access to the house.  Mmegi took to the streets in regard to the statement to gauge people's sentiments on the latest information of the decline of what seemed to be fashionable in Monarch.

Some of them state that it is due to the fact that the situation in Zimbabwe is now better therefore many Zimbabwean nationals have returned home and they are the ones who used to terrorise and break into their houses.

Ngweno Bashe, a resident of Area 2 in Monarch, tells Mmegi that his house has been burgled three times and people they often catch are Zimbabweans.

'I believe that times when burglary was a fashion in Monarch have elapsed because Zimbabweans have gone back to their motherland, I hated these people, dine di re senyetsa dilo tse, (meaning that they were terrorising us),' lambasted Ngwenu.

He says since the beginning of 2011 he has not experienced house burglary. He also says he can take a vacation away from home and he will find his house in the state he left it in.

Mpho Mpenya agrees with Bashe and says thieves have cleaned almost every area in Monarch and now they have moved to other areas where there is something of value to steal. ' House break-ins might have declined in Monarch but monarch thieves still top other areas. Instead of stealing in their location they have moved to other locations terrorising other people,' she points out.

Mpenya, however, disagrees with the fact that people in charge of the burglary in Monarch are Zimbabweans. She explains that they might be involved but they do not act alone and in fact Batswana accompany some of them. 'Batswana might be sending Zimbabweans to do their dirty work fearing that doing it themselves they may be caught since people can identify them,' adds Mpenya.

Gertrude Modisakgolo says the situation is now better because Monarch has developed and there are now streets lights everywhere unlike in the past were it was too dark to see someone's mischievous acts. She says now you can spot a thief from afar and if you see someone at your neighbour's house you can blow a whistle to alert law enforcement.

However, she concludes that a decline does not necessarily mean that Monarch is free of burglary. The decline is because people who use to break-in are no longer there. Referring to the Zimbabweans, she also mentions that they have gone back home especially during festive holidays.

Oarabile George emphasises that the police officers might be doing their job as well as the active groups around the location that is why the situation is better. He says that Batswana mess up and blame it on Zimbabweans, which is totally unfair.

'Even though the situation in Zimbabwe is now better multitudes of them are still roaming the streets of Monarch, Batswana are the ones who breaks into our homes because usually they survey houses doing some research of where to steal. Few Zimbabweans are involved,' laments George. Although many of the residents state that burglary cases have declined Masego Toteng chooses to defer as she explains that on New Year's Eve thugs cleaned her neighbour's house

'How can we say burglary has gone down in our location whereas it is crystal clear that they steal even in the daylight because my neighbour's house was cleaned during the day.  Personally I do not see the change I even think the situation has worsened' Toteng said.

All in all the assistant superintendent Bojang advises people to always live someone in their house whenever they work night shifts because this is the time when burglars break in as well as to start programmes like neighbourhood watch and alert the police about their suspicions.