Africa-Press – Lesotho. THE disclosure by Police Minister Lebona Lephema that 213 people were murdered in the last five months alone is yet another vivid reminder that the government is losing its battle against crime.
Lephema told Senators that since January this year, 101 people were stabbed to death, 81 were shot dead while 31 were killed in acts of mob justice. That makes it nine people dying every week through egregious acts of violence.
If these statistics do not make your blood boil, then nothing will. However, what these stats do not tell us is the reason why we as a people are willing to resort to extreme acts of violence to settle disputes.
That is the question we would want our intelligentsia at our universities to unpack for us. Until the government analyses and understands the reasons behind the violence, it will continue to go in circles in trying to proffer solutions to the crisis.
In his response, Lephema has suggested that the solution lies in putting more boots on the ground. He has spoken of the need to supply more vehicles so there is greater police visibility in the villages.
That is understandable. But that will only work if such a measure is part of a comprehensive policing strategy to fight crime. In our opinion, the key to tackling crime lies in sophisticated intelligence gathering to counter criminality before it happens.
Lesotho needs a new cadre of a police officer: smarter and sophisticated to tackle crime. To achieve that goal, the government will need to invest in the education of our police officers.
It must recruit some of the sharpest brains from universities and send them for training abroad. The days of recruiting on the basis of party affiliation are over.
Once we get the recruitment right, Lesotho will be half-way on its journey to effectively fight crime. But of course, we agree that this would only be part of the solution.
Fighting crime is a complex subject. The judiciary must play its part in ensuring that those accused of violent crime are dealt with effectively. We need to see judges dispensing deterrent sentences on offenders.
There is a sentiment at present that the judiciary has been extremely lenient in dealing with violent offenders. That too must change. Lephema said at least 31 people died as a result of acts of mob violence.
That is regrettable. However, the reason why communities resort to self-help is because they often feel let down by the justice system and then take the law into their own hands.
While this should not be acceptable in a normal society, ours is not a normal society anymore. To fix this, the government must ensure that our justice system works for everybody regardless of their station in life.
In fighting crime, the government must resist the temptation to see this noble fight through xenophobic lens. This is not a Chinese problem. We know that Lesotho has always struggled with the problem of illegal guns.
The reality is that Lesotho has porous borders which allows thousands of Basotho to bring illegal guns into the country. It is telling that the largest number of those killed were not shot; they were stabbed.
That would suggest that the narrative that Lesotho has a “gun problem” is not fairly accurate. What we have is a violence problem that is now crying out to be addressed.
https://www.thepost.co.ls/comment/we-need-a-new-policing-strategy/
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