The Minister of Defence and Security, Kagiso Mmusi, has revealed that Mahalapye remains one of the villages with a high crime record rate registering over 3, 000 cases in the past five years.
Responding to a question posed by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mahalapye West, David Tshere, who had asked about the status of crime in Mahalapye over the past five years, Mmusi said criminal activity ranged from rape and murder to burglary and others. Tshere had wanted to know how many people were convicted for the charges that were levelled against them. In response, Mmusi disclosed that from 2019 to December 2023, Mahalapye recorded a total of 3, 112 criminal cases. Of the 3, 112 cases, rape cases stand at 445, murder at 58, and house-breaking at 849, while common nuisance, burglary, and stock theft registered 1, 028, 260, and 472 cases respectively. He revealed that from those numbers, only a small fraction of the cases were solved. “As per the figures ,a total of 398 offenders were convicted by the courts of the law,” Mmusi said.
He stressed that Mahalapye continues to present a challenge in terms of crimes in Botswana judging by the figures. “Based on the statistics provided, criminal activities have been fluctuating for the past five years. However, house-breaking slightly increased from 168 in 2020 to 169 in 2021. Common nuisance recorded a significant increase from 171 in 2022 to 238 in 2023,” Mmusi said. “Stock theft on the other hand registered a noticeable increase from 75 in 2019 to 98 cases in 2020. It also recorded another increase from 87 incidents in 2022 to 154 incidents in 2023, which represents an increase of 67 cases," he added.
