Law And Order in a democracy depends on a deal between the police and public.
The police get their authority from the law but their results from the community.
In Namibia, that deal is breaking down.
Officers making lawful arrests are surrounded by hostile crowds; the videos are on Facebook every week, posted in celebration, not shame.
Wanted suspects are hidden by relatives and neighbours.
Drug dealers work openly, protected not by weapons but by the silence of the communities they poison.
Say it plainly: helping the police is not a favour to the state. It is a legal duty and a civic one, and neglecting it costs the community.
The law is clear. Section 35 of the Police Act 19 of 1990 makes it a crime to resist, hinder or block an officer at work.
The penalty: up to N$20 000, five years in prison, or both.
The law also demands help.
Section 47 of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 says that when the police call on you to help make an arrest, you must.
Refusing is an offence.
The wording is old; the principle is not.
The common law adds the crime of defeating the course of justice: hiding suspects, destroying evidence, lying to investigators.
SILENCE DOESN’T ENSURE SAFETY
Whoever hides a wanted suspect is no innocent bystander. In law, they have joined the crime.
But cooperation is not only about punishment.
It is about simple numbers.
Namibia is a huge country policed by a small force.
Every investigation depends on a chain: someone who reports, someone who testifies, a community that lets officers work.
When a crowd blocks an arrest, the chain breaks.
The case collapses; the suspect walks back to the same street.
People who fight the police to protect a suspect are not defending their own.
They are disarming themselves.
The objections deserve honest answers.
The most serious is fear of revenge.
For years it was justified. Less so today.
The Witness Protection Act of 2017 came into force in October 2023, and a Witness Protection Unit now operates under the justice ministry.
That system must still prove itself but anonymous reporting needs no protection at all.
Silence has never bought safety. It feeds crime.
Others hide family out of loyalty.
That is not protection but abandonment: the offender you hide today is only saved for harsher punishment tomorrow.
Others point to police misconduct.
Those cases are real; take them to the courts, the ombudsman and the press.
But demanding better police and helping the police are not opposites.
Only a community that plays its part has the right to demand better policing.
None of this asks you to be a doormat.
You may watch an arrest, ask an officer’s name, and complain if the law is broken.
Using your phone to film an officer is lawful evidence; the crowd pushing in behind it is a crime.
The law does not forbid watching. It forbids sabotage.
Watch, question, record and report, but do not block.
DRUGS AND THE DEALERS
Nowhere does public silence do more damage than in the drug trade.
Drug dealers do not hide from communities. Communities hide them.
Residents in every town can name the houses and people that sell drugs.
The dealer survives on two things: the silence of adults and the money of children.
Communities supply both. No police can remove drugs from a society that accepts their sale.
The fight must stay within the law.
Mob justice is a second crime that destroys the very court cases the community wants.
The lawful tools are simple. Report dealing houses, again and again, anonymously if you must.
Refuse to rent rooms to people whose money has no explanation.
Alert schools, churches and constituency offices.
Testify when called; stand by the families who do.
None of this needs bravery, only the will to put the community’s children above comfort.
SHARED PROTECTION
The Namibian Police are not perfect; nothing excuses misconduct. But its officers come from our own homes and cannot succeed if the public stands against them.
A nation gets the safety its citizens are willing to defend.
When officers come to make an arrest, step aside.
When a fugitive knocks at your door, point them to the police station.
And when a neighbourhood house everyone knows about keeps destroying young lives, ask who protects it.
While we stay silent, the answer is us.
– Michael Kavari is a Namibian writer on policing and justice matters; kkavari10@gmail.com
