TWO Windhoek residents have claimed that some army officers patrolling the city’s crime hotspots as part of Operation Hornkranz assaulted them.
President Hage Geingob launched the joint operation involving the police, army and members of the Men and Women’s Network on 21 December last year. It ends next week, and was a bid to curb crime.
Since the operation started, there have been reports of alleged harassment and physical assaults by some soldiers in Windhoek and at Swakopmund.
One of the men, Petrus Manja, alleged that some soldiers assaulted him in Windhoek’s Okahandja Park around midnight on 31 December after he had greeted them.
Manja reported the assault at the Wanaheda Police Station. has seen a copy of Manja’s statement to the police. The case number is CR:1101/12/2018.
In his statement, Manja claimed the officer said “Hey you”, and he responded by greeting him.
“He pulled me out of the taxi. I said I know my rights. He cocked his AK47, saying I should not move, and then he took me to his colleague who tripped me. They then kicked me in the head, and beat me up. They were around six or seven,” stated Manja.
According to him, they told him to walk into the bushes and he refused to do so, before they walked away and left him there.
“I struggled to find a taxi from there. When I did, I went to the police station at Wanaheda, where I opened a case,” Manja continued.
He added that the police officers at Wanaheda refused to help him, saying he must have done something wrong or else the soldiers would not have beaten him.
Manja was treated at the Katutura Intermediate Hospital for a bruise on the left eye.
“I did not fight back. I did nothing wrong. For no reason at all, they attacked me. They took me by surprise. Everyone is asking what happened to me because they know I am not a troublemaker. I don’t fight or make trouble,” he stressed.
Manja’s two friends said “as much as we want them to keep us safe, they must not get carried away with beating people up”.
“It is out of hand. People do have rights,” the friends said.
Another resident, Howard Kaukungua, said a member of the Men and Women’s Network assaulted him at a nightclub in the city at night.
“They were using force to close down the place. My cousin videotaped the soldiers. They saw him. He ran down the street. They ran after him so they could delete the video. I ran after them. When I got there, I asked them what my cousin had done, and one guy who belongs to the Men and Women’s Network slapped me,” he explained.
Kaukungua claimed that some police officers discouraged him from opening a case, and he decided to go to the Ombudsman today.
“I do not even feel safe to go out. I feel traumatised. I just got the video a few days ago after it went viral, and this is helping me,” he added.
Police inspector general Sebastian Ndeitunga yesterday denied the claims that some soldiers assaulted people during Operation Hornkranz.
“I am not aware of any complains against soldiers. Those in the office have briefed me. The operation is doing well. There are more successes than complaints,” he said.
Ndeitunga also insisted that the police and the soldiers were very law-abiding, but if they work outside the law, it would not be condoned.
“The public should know that they are welcome to come and open cases, and we will investigate them to find out if there was an abuse of power. However, there are those who are malicious. Those people are the highest criminals who do not want to be caught,” he said.
shadowed Operation Hornkranz on Friday evening, where officers on the ground expressed their frustrations at the arrogance of civilians, saying this leads them to use force and violence at times to apprehend them.
During the Operation Hornkranz patrol on Friday between 22h00 and 06h00, The Namibian saw how members of the public would start fights and arguments when apprehended for not having a licence or driving past a red traffic light, or drunken driving.
One civilian called a minister when he got stopped for driving past a red light, and then also spoke of how he knows people in high places. He had 0,62ml of alcohol in his blood.
Another man, who was speeding past a police roadblock, started a fight after he was told to sit in the police car while they attempted to contact his family for his identification documents. His car disc was expired.
Members of the Men and Women’s Network assisted the two police officers to apprehend the man, and violence ensued.
The man was kicked and elbowed for resisting arrest. He is facing charges of reckless driving, drunken driving, driving without a licence and not wearing a seatbelt, as well as driving past a roadblock.
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