Namibia ‘a drug paradise’

MEMBERS of Parliament were in rare unison condemning drug abuse and smuggling when debating a motion tabled by an opposition politician last week.

‘Despite all efforts to by authorities and Police to cope with the use of drugs and smuggling them, Namibia has become a paradise for drug smugglers and drug trafficking,’ said Jurie Viljoen of Monitor Action Group (MAG), who tabled the motion. ‘We need to only read our local newspapers to realise Namibia and our children are a soft target to absorb this ‘nectar’ from the table of Satan and that our country is used as a freeway to [smuggle drugs] to other countries. ‘Smugglers know that Namibia neither has the necessary manpower and equipment nor adequate border control to deal with the problem,’ Viljoen said. He cited the Angolan border as an example, where people on foot can easily slip across unnoticed while a lack of electronic equipment and sheer volumes of cargo in and out of Namibia make it virtually impossible to control drug trafficking. Viljoen also bemoaned the lack of trained sniffer dogs. ‘It costs a lot of money to heal a drug abuser from this harmful practice, it costs about N$20 000 to detox a person and counselling programmes for six months cost another N$18 000,’ Viljoen added.McHenry Venaani of the DTA said in his contribution to the debate that Windhoek’s Khomasdal suburb is a ‘drug hotspot’. In his view, ‘every second unemployed male Namibian is somewhere involved in drugs’.Safety and Security Minister Nickey Iyambo said many of the 18- to 25-year-olds in Police holding cells say they turned to theft because of unemployment and poverty, although many of them have family members who work. ‘If you look at those young people in the cells, their eyes are red from drug use,’ the Minister said. ‘There are also hard drugs [produced] in clandestine laboratories in Namibia. This shows us in what direction we are moving with regard to drug abuse. At the Oshikango border post it is so busy that it is physically impossible to search all trucks for drugs,’ he said. ‘There is hope however that before the end of this year we will receive seven special X-ray machines to examine trucks.’Deputy Agriculture Minister Isak Katali said: ‘I hate drugs and in Katutura you smell dagga everywhere.’ DTA President Katuutire Kaura proposed a national anti-drug campaign with the same intensity as the campaign warning the public about the dangers of HIV-AIDS.’We should fight it [drug use] at household level and in schools. Drug barons look for big money and mainly in Angola and South Africa, they use Namibia as a transit country,’ said Justice Minister Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana.Swapo backbencher George Kaiyamo said young people often experiment with drugs because of peer pressure.Arnold Tjihuiko of Nudo blamed a lack of parental supervision and involvement in their children’s activities.’Pocket money parents give to their children can easily be used to buy drugs, because parents do not check on what their children spend the money. Another concern is that in some cultures it is taboo to openly speak about problems in families, this should be changed,’ he said.He added that churches play a large role in providing moral guidelines.Congress of Democrats (CoD) Parliamentarian Kaveri Kavari supported Tjihuiko. ‘Churches played a very important role in past decades in shaping the moral fibre of society. The increase of new churches could help to fight against moral decay, an outflow of which is increased drug abuse,’ she said.