BY MBONO MDLULI
MATSAPHA – There has been a significant decrease in murder cases from 2023 to 2024 in Eswatini.
This is according to Police National Commissioner Vusi Manoma Masango. He said this today, January 23, 2025 at the opening of the Senior Police Officers and Senior Civilian Support Staff Conference, which was held at Matsapha Police Academy.
Making his welcoming remarks during the event, Masango highlighted that the decrease was not only in murder cases, but also in cases of attempted murder and armed robberies. “Notably, there was a significant decline on certain serious crimes including murder (20.6% decrease), armed robbery (36.5 % decrease) and attempted murder (21.1% decrease),” Masango said.
However, it looks like there is still a lot of work to be done by the law enforcers in combating crime, as generally, the crime rate has increased from 2023 to 2024. “Available statistics indicate that volume crime increased by 13.7% in 2024 where 60 152 cases were reported compared to 52 917 reported in 2023,” he said.
Masango said crimes such as rape, fraud and the theft of copper continued to be a menace. Therefore, he saw the conference as an event that had a major task in coming up with practical solutions to curtail these occurrences.
According to the NatCom, gender-based violence (GBV) cases continued at an alarming rate and Government had even come short of declaring this scourge a national emergency/disaster. “Police psychologists, Chaplaincy and Police welfare officers are spending sleepless nights in offering counselling sessions to officers, their families and relatives as well as the general public,” he said.
He said their statistics indicated that a total of 5 846 cases were recorded during the year 2023, whilst in 2024 they recorded a total of 5 795, which signified only 1% decline. Speaking of suicide cases, Masango said in 2024, a total of 172 suicide cases were recorded, and alarmingly, 17 of these involved children under the age of 18.
The police commissioner said this meant that the Police Service, stakeholders and partners in the health, wellness and welfare sectors needed to roll up their sleeves in finding lasting solutions to this problem.
On behalf of the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS), Masango expressed appreciation to members of the public and various strategic stakeholders for the unrelenting support rendered to the police, which was in line with the national slogans of, “Nawe Uliphoyisa” and “Bucala Yindzaba Yetfu Sonkhe”.
On the road traffic scene, Masango said there was a slight decrease of 4.4% on overall accidents recorded in 2024, compared to 2023.
He said an impressive 12% decrease was recorded on fatal road accidents which was a positive even though the ideal situation would be zero deaths. This could be attributed to the zero tolerance approach on drunken driving, reckless driving and over speeding which were causal factors of road carnage. There was also a massive of 30% decrease on pedestrian deaths in 2024 compared to 2023.
Masango also mentioned that they had been facing a number of administrative and operational challenges, including shortage of transport, which had all along been affecting organisational efficiency, rendering police unable to promptly respond to scenes of crime and other distress calls.
“We are pleased to mention that this problem will be curtailed by the allocation of a fleet of 105 motor vehicles, of which 73 have been delivered already,” he said. He said they eagerly awaited, with great anticipation, the delivery of the remaining 32 motor vehicles and 20 motorcycles, which would ease the transport problem in their work formations.
The lack of Operational Equipment also compromised operational efficiency, especially in the area of records management and evidence collection, which was key in police administration, investigations and operations, according to Masango.
He said another perennial problem was housing shortages, but significant progress had been made, since Prime Minister Russell Dlamini conducted a tour of some of their accommodation facilities in various camps.
Remarkably, Masango said a couple of inhabitable housing units were demolished at New Camp in Mbabane and construction of a triple-storey block of one bedroom flats that would accommodate 24 officers had begun in earnest, through the Microprojects. He said indeed, the ‘nkwe’ impetus has permeated throughout the Government machinery as per the command of His Majesty and Sibaya submissions.