By Bahle Gama
The Kingdom of Eswatini has recorded a 20 per cent decrease in the murder rate in the previous year.
This was disclosed in the Royal Eswatini Police Services (REPS) 2023/24 performance report.
The REPS reported that the killing of another continues to be a cause for concern as during the reporting period, 183 cases were recorded against 231 cases reported in the same period last year.
This translated to a decrease of 20.8 per cent. Breakthroughs have been made in murder cases with a total of 189 suspects arrested in connection with the crimes.
The report stated that most of the murder cases emanate from, amongst other things, family disputes and gender-based violence, abuse of alcohol, dagga wars, mob justice as well as forced ingestion of poisonous substances.
“A multi-faceted approach is necessary to curb this scourge of crime,” reads the report.
However, other crimes such as rape showed an increase over the same period under review.
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The report stated that “the challenge with this crime is that it mostly occurs in private spaces and cannot be effectively tackled through the range of existing policing interventions.”
“Be that as it may, pragmatic strategies continue to be rolled out which include extensive patrols in areas prone to rape cases, public sensitisation and education in schools and communities to encourage victims to report such incidents.”
The report also painted a grim picture when it comes to GBV. There was a significant increase in the number of GBV cases reported under the year in review.
The increase is however attributed to more cases being reported instead of swept under the rug.
“The concerted education effort has resulted in the unravelling number of sexual violence cases that were previously concealed. Around 4,909 GBV cases were recorded during the period under review compared to the 4,359 that were recorded in the same period last year. This illustrates an increase of 13 per cent,” the report stated.
The REPS further stated that it is continuing to roll out a programme to mitigate GBV in collaboration with other stakeholders by educating communities and strategic stakeholders on SODV, conducting awareness campaigns, and prioritising the investigation of such cases to ensure the timely arrest of offenders.
The REPS also highlighted that officers have managed to resolve missing people cases with the majority being found alive.
Out of the 450 cases of missing persons reported, 384 were found alive and only 10 were found dead.
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At least 56 remain missing with investigations ongoing. “As an intervention to mitigate against incidents of missing persons, the public is continually being educated and sensitised on the aspect of reporting promptly any missing person which often could be linked to other serious crimes such as murder and human trafficking.”
E17.01 million worth of livestock stolen
The 2023/24 police reporting period recorded an increase of 11.6 per cent in livestock theft with at least 134 suspects arrested.
Cattle and goats were the most stolen during the period with a value of E17.01 million respectively.
According to the 2023/24 Annual Performance report by the REPS, most of these crimes were committed by cross-border syndicates. This resulted in the police service upscaling intelligence-led interventions.
This includes multilateral collaborations with neighbouring countries to mitigate the scourge. “The stock theft unit has been strengthened through the infusion of manpower and requisite resources.”
“During the period, 543 cases of stolen cattle were reported with 1,488 livestock stolen valued at E13.4 million. Of these, 211 were recovered in Eswatini and 67 in neighbouring countries. There were 36 arrests,” the report highlighted.
Around 479 cases were opened involving 3,081 goats valued at E3.5 million. The report said 263 were recovered in the country and 12 in neighbouring countries. There were 32 arrests.
“The recovered cattle and goats were valued at E2.5 million respectively.”
