City seeks more control over car guards

THE Windhoek Municipality has issued car guards with identification cards and new bibs as part of an effort to better control their activities.

Eighty-two car guards are registered with the Windhoek City Council. On Tuesday, the City signed a memorandum of understanding with the car guards, stipulating what was required of them.Strategic Executive for Economic Development Hafeni Nghinamwaami said the move was aimed at stricter control and supervision of the car guards’ activities.”We want to reassure the public that we have our thumbs on these guys,” he said.”We believe that this exercise will go a long way in curbing crime, car theft and bring some order in the city.”Nghinamwaami said the city was aware of incidents in which car guards had threatened motorists and even damaged cars over non-payment for their services.He said people were not compelled to allow car guards to look after their vehicles but should make the arrangement clear from the outset.The City said it was deploying plain clothes officials to monitor the activities of car guards and encouraged the public to contact the municipality if they experienced problems.The car guards pay an annual contract fee of N$40 and are required to pay N$50 for their bibs and N$25 for identification cards.All the bibs are numbered and guards are not allowed to exchange their bibs or identification cards.They are only allowed to work in areas designated to them by the city.On Tuesday, the City signed a memorandum of understanding with the car guards, stipulating what was required of them.Strategic Executive for Economic Development Hafeni Nghinamwaami said the move was aimed at stricter control and supervision of the car guards’ activities.”We want to reassure the public that we have our thumbs on these guys,” he said.”We believe that this exercise will go a long way in curbing crime, car theft and bring some order in the city.”Nghinamwaami said the city was aware of incidents in which car guards had threatened motorists and even damaged cars over non-payment for their services.He said people were not compelled to allow car guards to look after their vehicles but should make the arrangement clear from the outset.The City said it was deploying plain clothes officials to monitor the activities of car guards and encouraged the public to contact the municipality if they experienced problems.The car guards pay an annual contract fee of N$40 and are required to pay N$50 for their bibs and N$25 for identification cards.All the bibs are numbered and guards are not allowed to exchange their bibs or identification cards.They are only allowed to work in areas designated to them by the city.