Corporate offences (house breaking and robbery) went down 34 times during the festive season when compared to last year during the same period.
This is according to Botswana Police crime statistics which shows a decline in corporate offences from 714 last festive seasons to 680 this season.
After the festive season twenty one suspects have been arrested for corporate offences committed in and around Gaborone. All are males with 16 Batswana, three Egyptians, one Zimbabwean and one Zambian aging between 25 and 39.
Botswana Police Deputy Spokesperson and Senior Superintendent Dipheko Motube said he was impressed with how the public cooperated with the police during this season. He said the public made a huge effort in combating crime hence the decline in statistics.
“I am quite impressed and happy with what I saw on the ground during the festive season.┬á It showed that initiatives like neighbourhood watch and hiring someone to look after your property while on vacation worked……it could have been worse,” said Motube.
 Motube said people should not read too much on the statistics but also look at efforts that could have been made by the public to combat crime. He said credit should go to those who cooperated well with the police.
┬á“People have responded well when looking at the statistics and comparing them to our population….It could have been worse,” said Motube.
 However he also mentioned that there were also some who chose to be careless. Motube said those are the ones who did not take heed of police advices and went for irresponsible drinking instead.
 Another set of statistics that have disappointed Motube are those relating to rape as they having gone up from 139 last year to 156 this year.
┬á“We have observed a trend that some are being irresponsible and careless when in a celebratory mood……one night of the New Year’s eve twenty-six people were reported to be raped across the country,” said Motube.
 When explaining this trend, Motube said this must be a true sign of irresponsibility and recklessness. 
Despite police efforts to prevent road accident by their operational strategy initiative, road accidents went up from 373 last year to 667 this year Botswana Police attributed most of road casualties to growing number of cattle roaming on tarred roads.
“For the period in review, 17, 420 cattle were removed from roads as compared to 13┬á191 during the same period last year,” police said.
