With 107 cases of rape, another 107 of defilement, 124 of threat-to-kill and several murders and suicides under active investigation, Molepolole is engulfed in a stormy vortex of crime
Sylvia Disele
Police in Molepolole say the principal town of BaKwena has become the scene of an epidemic of heinous crimes of passion, suicide and rape involving relatives, ex-lovers and people in relationships that they are investigating.
Officer Commanding No. 11 District, Senior Superintendant Modise Gabatshwane, says they recorded 1 037 cases of gender-based violence from January 2018 to September 2020 and that incidents of threat-to-kill, rape and defilement of persons under the age of 18 years are increasing at an alarming rate.
“We recorded 107 cases of rape, 124 of threat-to-kill and 107 of defilement of persons under the age of 18 between the beginning of the year and September 14,” Gabatshwane said in an interview.
The latest of these happened last Saturday when a 36-year old man stabbed his 31-year old girlfriend to death and then committed suicide at Monwane, a village near Molepolole. On the Wednesday before then, a 25-year old youth had stabbed his 24-year old girlfriend to death before hanging himself at Borakalalo Ward where his girlfriend had lived in rented accommodation.
The two left a 2-year old toddler. In another incident, a 17-year old youth committed suicide at Newtown Ward in Molepolole over relationship issues while a 15-year old girl was gang-raped, also in the principal town of BaKwena, last week. The Tshegetsang Junior Secondary School girl was allegedly raped by four men who are all at large.