Maids call for Police patrols

DOZENS of Keetmanshoop domestic workers who fear becoming the next victims of violent attacks on women yesterday staged a demonstration to call for regular Police patrols.

The maids said a bridge known as the ‘Green Bridge’, which they use to reach the town’s Westdene residential area where most of them work, has become a “danger zone”. They claimed the Green Bridge was where thugs ambushed women returning from their workplaces to rob or rape them.”If the Police cannot patrol the streets because of a lack of manpower, the NDF troops at the town can do the job, since they’re just idling at the town’s NDF base,” said the group’s spokesperson, Cecilia Roos.The women who gathered in front of the local Police station displayed placards reading: “We need fathers and husbands, not rapists and murderers.Protect us, we are powerless against the criminals.Stiffer sentences for perpetrators now.”Roos said no petition was prepared to be handed over to the Police station commander.”They must just read the placards, the messages are clear,” she said when asked why they had not drafted a petition.Recently a local teacher, Rachel Maas, was murdered in her house at the Westdene residential area.It was reported that Maas was hit on her head with a hammer and afterwards strangled with a piece of cloth.They claimed the Green Bridge was where thugs ambushed women returning from their workplaces to rob or rape them.”If the Police cannot patrol the streets because of a lack of manpower, the NDF troops at the town can do the job, since they’re just idling at the town’s NDF base,” said the group’s spokesperson, Cecilia Roos.The women who gathered in front of the local Police station displayed placards reading: “We need fathers and husbands, not rapists and murderers.Protect us, we are powerless against the criminals.Stiffer sentences for perpetrators now.”Roos said no petition was prepared to be handed over to the Police station commander.”They must just read the placards, the messages are clear,” she said when asked why they had not drafted a petition.Recently a local teacher, Rachel Maas, was murdered in her house at the Westdene residential area.It was reported that Maas was hit on her head with a hammer and afterwards strangled with a piece of cloth.