Times Of Swaziland: 61 WOMEN RAPED MONTHLY ESWATINI

61 WOMEN RAPED MONTHLY ESWATINI
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BY LINDELWA MALINGA on 31/05/2018 01:47:00


MBABANE – 61 women are raped at least every month in the Kingdom of Eswatini.
These alarming figures were revealed by the National Commissioner of Police
Isaac Magagula, who was the guest speaker yesterday at Nkhaba Inkhundla, during
a Crime Awareness Campaign.
The national commissioner stated that cases of gender-based violence (GBV) that
manifest mainly through rapes and intimate partner killings (passion killings),
are another persistent challenge in the country’s overall crime landscape.
Magagula stated that there were 1 046 rape cases reported in 17 months, which is
from January 2017 up until May this year.
The national commissioner stated that the most harrowing, are the cases where
young children and elderly women are subjected to the horror of rape.
“Also mindboggling are cases where biological fathers rape their own
daughters, which is incomprehensible to say the least,” Magagula said. He also
mentioned that at least  10 people are murdered every month in Eswatini, as they
recorded 180 murder cases from the beginning of 2017 until the current month.
The number of murders is of varied degrees in the country, which is a
disconcerting and sobering statistics, given the modest population of Eswatini,
according to Magagula. There are 13 armed robberies committed in the country
every  month, in recorded stats from last year until now.
According to the police, a total of 227 armed robberies were recorded from
January last year until the current month.
“A disturbing trend we are now observing is that some of the most serious
armed robberies are ‘inside jobs’, where employees of business entities
share classified information on cash flows and banking times with criminals,”
Magagula said.
With regard to cases of intimate partner killings, or the so-called passion
killings two are reported every month.
The total of passion killing cases reported were 39 who have died for love in 17
months.