Damara Tern fence case withdrawn

THE case of a Swakopmund resident and tourism operator charged with damaging the Damara Tern fence in December was withdrawn in the Walvis Bay Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Pieter van Ginkel was charged with malicious damage to State property. He appeared in the Walvis Bay Magistrate’s Court on December 31 for the first time.The case was postponed three times for further investigation before it was withdrawn.According to the prosecutor the case was dropped because of a lack of evidence implicating Van Ginkel.He was never arrested and only warned to be in court.A stretch of more then one kilometre of the Damara Tern fence outside Swakopmund was damaged during the weekend before Christmas.The culprit allegedly drove over it with an off-road vehicle with a high clearance.Van Ginkel’s Unimog was confiscated by the Police when he was implicated in the case.Van Ginkel yesterday told The Namibian his tourism business had suffered severe losses following reports of the court case in the press.He said clients from as far away as the US had cancelled booked tours after reading about the case on the internet; other clients had e-mailed him from Europe.Van Ginkel said he had since sold the Unimog, and would have to start picking up the pieces.Still insisting on his innocence, he said he would have shot himself in the foot by such an act of vandalism.”I get very angry when people destroy whatever tourism attractions we have, such as the participants in the Desert Run who chased a springbok in the desert over Easter.”He appeared in the Walvis Bay Magistrate’s Court on December 31 for the first time.The case was postponed three times for further investigation before it was withdrawn.According to the prosecutor the case was dropped because of a lack of evidence implicating Van Ginkel.He was never arrested and only warned to be in court.A stretch of more then one kilometre of the Damara Tern fence outside Swakopmund was damaged during the weekend before Christmas.The culprit allegedly drove over it with an off-road vehicle with a high clearance.Van Ginkel’s Unimog was confiscated by the Police when he was implicated in the case.Van Ginkel yesterday told The Namibian his tourism business had suffered severe losses following reports of the court case in the press.He said clients from as far away as the US had cancelled booked tours after reading about the case on the internet; other clients had e-mailed him from Europe.Van Ginkel said he had since sold the Unimog, and would have to start picking up the pieces.Still insisting on his innocence, he said he would have shot himself in the foot by such an act of vandalism.”I get very angry when people destroy whatever tourism attractions we have, such as the participants in the Desert Run who chased a springbok in the desert over Easter.”