Keetmans residents fed up with crime

A GROUP of Keetmanshoop residents on Thursday took to the streets to protest against the murder of a fellow resident, Kilius Ngegsheya, who was battered to death last Monday evening.

‘Murderers and rapists get free lawyers’, ‘Stealing a goat you get 25 years imprisonment’ and ‘Judicial system is a joke’, read some of the placards carried by protesters. The murder took place at the farm Kaalvlakte in the Bethanie district.A suspect, Marius Thomas, was arrested in connection with Ngegsheya’s murder.Handing over a petition to Karas and Hardap Divisional Magistrate Alfred Siboleka, Reverend Elia Ndishishi decried the escalating violence at the town in recent months.Ndishishi also expressed concern over tribalism, which he claimed was rife at the town.He could not say whether the murder had been tribally motivated.Receiving the petition, Siboleka pledged that any person found guilty of any criminal offence would face the full wrath of the law.”I’m warning those we don’t want peace by terminating the lives of innocent people, that there is no doubt that they would face the music,” he said.It is the second time in less than a month that the town’s residents have staged a demonstration to condemn the recent murders at the town.The murder took place at the farm Kaalvlakte in the Bethanie district.A suspect, Marius Thomas, was arrested in connection with Ngegsheya’s murder.Handing over a petition to Karas and Hardap Divisional Magistrate Alfred Siboleka, Reverend Elia Ndishishi decried the escalating violence at the town in recent months.Ndishishi also expressed concern over tribalism, which he claimed was rife at the town.He could not say whether the murder had been tribally motivated.Receiving the petition, Siboleka pledged that any person found guilty of any criminal offence would face the full wrath of the law.”I’m warning those we don’t want peace by terminating the lives of innocent people, that there is no doubt that they would face the music,” he said. It is the second time in less than a month that the town’s residents have staged a demonstration to condemn the recent murders at the town.