The Botswana Police Service is concerned about false stories alleging a spate of rape and robberies at local shopping malls in Gaborone.  These allegations are circulated through social networks or e-mail under the guise of a warning to the women folk about rape and robbery that are taking place in public toilets at shopping centres.

The allegations are far from the truth as we the police have never registered any cases of such nature in Gaborone or anywhere in this Republic.  In addition this warning is alleged to be originating from a certain “Inspector King Tshebo of Airport Police”.  The truth of the matter is that we don’t have any police inspector by the names of King Tshebo.  The only officer who is a member of the Botswana Police Service and has similar names to this one is a Superintendent and is based in Naledi Police Station as a Station Commander. As a matter of fact, Superintendent Tshebo has never authored this mail.

Therefore, the Botswana Police Service would like to advise members of the public to ignore these baseless allegations which cause unnecessary anxiety on the public, especially women and treat the e-mail as a hoax.   However, we would like to confirm that rape is a serious problem in our country and people should do everything in their power to avoid becoming victims of such heinous crimes.

We would like to assure members of the public that the Police Service will duly inform the public about any emerging crime trends.