BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE- The Government has applauded the Royal Eswatini Police Services (REPS) for the breakthroughs made despite all the operational challenges the organisation operates under.
His Excellency Prime Minister Cleopas Sipho Dlamini said they encourage interventions to prevent and curtail crime should continue to be heightened in order to ensure that the nation lives in a peaceful and crime controlled environment.
This was revealed during the tabling of the Prime Minister’s Office report to the Portfolio committee.
Dlamini said the operational environment was challenging due to higher than normal safety and security threats marked by various acts of violence, arson attacks, cold-blooded killings of members of the public and police officers in the line of duty by unknown criminals as well as impromptu public disorder situations.
“Despite the challenges, the police service managed to carry out its mandate of providing safety and security to the nation through vigorous crime prevention initiatives, detection interventions as well as traffic policing.
“To enhance the operational and administrative frameworks, government has made provision for the recruitment of novice Police officers,” he said.
The report further revealed that the government implemented a four per cent salary adjustment to address the long outstanding issue of Phase II of the restructuring of pay scales exercise.
It was further revealed that the volume of crime stood at 41 013 compared to 44 058 cases recorded in the parallel period last year reflecting a 7.0 per cent decrease.
The detection rate stood at 34.7 per cent with a total of 14 242 suspects arrested for various crimes including Murder, Attempted Murder, Car Theft, House Breaking and Theft as well as Gender Based Violence(GBV).
“There are major breakthroughs on Terrorism inclined cases where suspects were arrested. Government is extremely concerned by the permeating culture of violence in the country and the apparent disrespect for the value of human life which is seen by the rate at which Murder cases are reported,” Said the PM in his report.
Meanwhile, rape and other GBV cases were mentioned to be another serious concern to Government and as a nation we need to come up with tangible solutions to end this scourge.
“Honourable Chairperson, let me take this opportunity to condemn the increasing incidents of mob killings. Taking the law into own hands is not only uncivilized but a serious criminal offence. We must put a stop to this errant practice, which has the propensity of sowing seeds of continuing violence,” said the PM.
On Road Traffic Policing, a comparative analysis on road accidents shows a decrease on both fatal and serious accidents by 5.9 per cent and 3.2 per cent respectively.
It is however listed as a, cause for concern that out of the 180 road deaths, 79 were pedestrians.
The main causal factors of traffic accidents are drinking and driving, over-speeding, overloading, lack of driving experience as well as reckless conduct of pedestrians whilst crossing or walking along the roads.
“The Police Service will continue to conduct Road Accident Prevention initiatives aimed at sensitizing road users on adherence to traffic laws and regulations as this will help in reducing the fatalities.
“During the period under review, the Police Service was allocated an Annual Recurrent Budget of E1 006 266 463 for the financial year 2022/23. The released budget as at January 31, 2023 stands at E1 061 264 792
The Police Service collected a total amount of E9 318 015 as at January 31, 2023; as a sub-revenue collector for government,” read the PM’s report in conclusion.
The Police Service was allocated a sum of E59 Million for various projects which include Construction of Buhleni Police Station, Equipment for State Security and the Rehabilitation of Police Buildings and Fencing.
The Buhleni Police Station construction project physical work done now stands at 95%. The projected occupation of the Project is estimated to be end of August 2023.
Police infrastructural facilities that are being rehabilitated include Malkerns and Siteki Police Stations and the progress of works at the sites is within the programmed schedule.
Government remains committed and attaches priority in addressing the challenges of transport, manpower, accommodation and operational equipment in the Police Service.
