City Police in force early next year

THE long-awaited and much-anticipated Windhoek City Police will be commissioned by President Sam Nujoma on Thursday.

But residents won’t see the force in action before early next year. The City’s public relations officer, Liz Sibindi, said on Friday that the President’s stamp of approval would officially jumpstart the project’s implementation.First on the agenda is the appointment of the chiefs of the crime prevention and the traffic units.The City’s current security head, Abraham Kanime, will head the force.Initially the project is expected to get off the ground with the municipality’s existing security personnel and traffic officers, while the municipality begins recruiting and selecting more staff.New recruits would be expected to undergo training at the local Police college.Posts were advertised last year already and thousands of applications were received.Sibindi said at this stage the municipality could not set a fixed date for the city police to become fully operational.The project has been in the pipeline for more than two years, and ratepayers began paying towards the force last year already.The City has also budgeted millions for the project over the last two financial years.Legal hiccups stalled the process after the City entered into a co-operation agreement with the Police last year, because the Local Authorities Act did not give municipalities the right to establish such a force.The necessary amendments to the law were only passed last month.The City’s public relations officer, Liz Sibindi, said on Friday that the President’s stamp of approval would officially jumpstart the project’s implementation.First on the agenda is the appointment of the chiefs of the crime prevention and the traffic units.The City’s current security head, Abraham Kanime, will head the force.Initially the project is expected to get off the ground with the municipality’s existing security personnel and traffic officers, while the municipality begins recruiting and selecting more staff.New recruits would be expected to undergo training at the local Police college.Posts were advertised last year already and thousands of applications were received.Sibindi said at this stage the municipality could not set a fixed date for the city police to become fully operational.The project has been in the pipeline for more than two years, and ratepayers began paying towards the force last year already.The City has also budgeted millions for the project over the last two financial years.Legal hiccups stalled the process after the City entered into a co-operation agreement with the Police last year, because the Local Authorities Act did not give municipalities the right to establish such a force.The necessary amendments to the law were only passed last month.