CRIME WAVE ON THE RISE

MBABANE – Prepare for a crime riddled Christmas. The crime wave threatens to get out of control with rape cases having doubled to a 100 per cent increase from the past three months rising from 111 cases to 241 cases.

Violent crime is on a steady increase in the country as communities have to grapple with murder and armed robberies each day. House breaking and theft has also increased rapidly, according to the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) Performance Report for the second quarter ending September 30, 2019.

The report states that there has been 27 murder cases, 34 attempted murder cases and 241 rape cases over the said period.
Armed robbery has also doubled from 36 in the previous reporting period to 50. House breaking and robberies rose from 1 420 to 1 430.

Decline

A decline in crime has been recorded in stock theft, copper wire theft and car theft.
Reports the police: “An upward trend is being observed in crimes such as rape, armed robberies and fraud and the police are working round the clock to turn around the tide against crimes through heightening visibility, establishing targeted task teams, including scaling up crime prevention outreach programmes.”

The police said they continued to intensify the fight against drug trafficking and 785 persons were arrested after being found in possession of dagga without a licence in different incidents. At least 75 of these were from neighbouring countries.

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