BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – The Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) has managed to make an amount of E1 610 080 during the first quarter 2024/25 financial year.
This is contained in the REPS’ 2024/25 first quarter performance report. The fines have been collected from April 2024 to June 2024 and were collected from different revenue items. The most contributing revenue item has been the traffic fines.
It looks like more criminal activities have been occurring on the road, as people were made to pay E1 293 520 during this period. The police collected E207 300 in respect of sundry fees, while they collected an amount of E65 340 from judicial fines.
An amount of E21 360 was collected from fines related to people found to be in wrongful possessions of guns known as shotgun. Those found to be in possession of guns such as revolver/pistol and rifles were fined E2 880 and E19 680, respectively.
During the period under review the organisation was allocated a sum of E50M for various capital projects in the Financial Year 2024/25. One of the projects is the Equipment for State Security and Police Service Phase II, which accounted for E20 million.
Another project is the Construction of Institutional Housing for Police Phase I, which accounts for E15 million. Another E15 million was allocated for the Rehabilitation and Security Fencing of Police Buildings Phase II.
The Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) draws its mandate from Section 189 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Eswatini, Act No.1 of 2005 and the Police Service Act No. 22 of 2018. The primary responsibility of the Police Service entails crime prevention and detection, maintenance of law and order, road safety management as well as the strengthening of State Security frameworks.
This Report highlights activities undertaken within the period 1st April, 2024 to 30th June, 2024, covering the following organizational frameworks:
• Police Administrative and Management Affairs – which relates to issues of organizational Policy, Legal Affairs, Human Resource Management as well as Training and Development aspect.
• Operational Frameworks – these entail frontline policing services and operations, crime prevention through enhanced stakeholder partnership, as well as public order management.
• Crime Investigation and Detection – focusing on the investigation and detection of all reported crimes and incidents.
• Traffic Policing – involves the management of traffic flow on the roads and highways as well as the reduction of road carnage through employing traffic accident preventative measures, reaction to accidents and enforcement of traffic laws.
• Budgetary Frameworks – focuses on Recurrent and Capital budget management / execution to implement organizational programmes.
• Safeguarding of State Security – relating to the gathering and collation of information and/or intelligence to safeguard the security and territorial integrity of the State.
• VIP and Diplomatic Security – involving the provision of security for VIP’s and members of the Diplomatic community (visiting and resident) in Eswatini.
