The Namibian Police’s commanders for the //Kharas and Zambezi regions, commissioners Marius Katamila and Andreas Shilelo, say their regions are ready to ensure the safety of residents and visitors this festive season.
Katamila and Shilelo were speaking on Desert Radio this week.
This was preceded by the launch of the //Kharas Police Festive Season Operation on Wednesday, and the Zambezi Regional Festive Season Joint Security Cluster Operation on Tuesday.
Katamila stressed the importance of ensuring safety and security for the region’s inhabitants and visitors during this time, both at home and on the roads.
“We have embarked upon robust deployment of our traffic officers along the B1, B2 and B3 highways. Our visibility will be there on a daily basis, including the roadblock that is active at Keetmanshoop,” he said.
“We are also going to have pop-up roadblocks across the regions. We will make sure the police have temporary roadblocks at every other town to enforce our Road Traffic Act and make sure that our visitors and residents are safe,” Katamila said.
While the region experienced some accidents, only a number of injuries were fatal last year, he said.
Katamila attributed this to the visibility of traffic officers across the region.
“Our festive season operations countrywide were launched by the inspector general on 17 November, and will be ongoing until 17 January,” he said.
ZAMBEZI CLUSTER
In the Zambezi region, Shilelo has also pledged to decrease the spike in festive season crime, which surged by 10,5% in the 2022/23 financial year.
Shilelo said running from 17 November to 17 January, the Regional Festive Season Joint Security Cluster Operation will involve collaborative efforts across the board.
“We are going to concentrate mostly on traffic management,” he said.
Shilelo said the security cluster is already on the ground establishing positions and areas to operate from.
“The cluster will be headed by the regional commander, deputised by the regional heads of the respective member agencies in the cluster,” he said.
REGIONAL CAPACITY AND MANPOWER
Katamila said a lack of human capital hinders the smooth operations of the police across all regions.
“That is one of the challenges every regional commander would tell you about. In //Kharas in particular, I am commanding – in terms of territory – the largest policing region in the country at 161 000 square metres.
“So, the number of police officers at my disposal is not nearly sufficient,” he said.
He said most commanders have learnt to do the best they can with what they have.
A lack of vehicles has also been dogging the police’s operations.
“I will have to make do with what I have and reassign vehicles to where there are extreme needs,” Katamila said.
“I can confidently say that all the stations have a vehicle,” he said.
PLAY YOUR PART
Katamila said in the run-up to the festive season, people want to make an extra quick buck at the expense of law-abiding citizens, leading to crimes like housebreaking.
As a result, the police in the //Kharas region recently concluded a community outreach programme at Lüderitz.
“What stood out was drug and alcohol abuse, which leads to crimes like domestic violence, statutory rape, house break-ins, theft, as well as assault of all sorts,” Katamila said.
He called on residents of the region to make use of the police’s open-house register when they leave their homes.
Katamila also urged residents to not leave valuables unattended, saying everyone should play their part.
“We will not neglect our regular police work because of the festive season operations. These operations will go hand in hand in the //Kharas region, as we try our level best to keep everyone safe,” he said.
