Shebeens Are The Problem

AS WE are all aware the Windhoek City Police has started to implement a municipal by-law that forces all city residents who wish to host a party at home to apply for approval or face possible fines from N$1000 up to N$10 000.

It’s not clear whether people will be fined for hosting parties without the permission of the City Police or for being a nuisance to the neighbours. I really don’t know whether house parties have become a nuisance to such an extent that it cannot be tolerated anymore but one thing I know is that the City Police are taking it very seriously that they have already started patrolling the streets.

While concentrating on house parties, the City Police have partly stopped focusing on the bigger problem and that is the illegal operating hours of shebeens. I would really like to believe that the City Police have received a lot of grievances from the residents or have done some sort of research before implementing this law, so I would like to know what caused the implementation of this law?

When tackling problems, you start with the most intolerable ones first to the least intolerable ones and I surely believe that the house parties are one of the least intolerable if not tolerable. There are also problems that are reasonably tolerable provided that proper control measures are taken. Patrolling the streets for any nuisance is highly appreciated but please control the shebeens and not the house parties.

If the City Police follows the statistics of crimes that have occurred, I believe they will agree that shebeens have contributed greatly. How will the City Police control those people who have shebeens at their houses when they throw parties?

There are much more important issues the City Police can concentrate on rather than house parties. Tackle the intolerable problems first which is the illegal operating hours of shebeens and then you can consider controlling the house parties which is a much less of a problem.

 

Jek  

Windhoek

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