Katima Mulilo – One hundred and eighty-eight cadet constables who successfully completed a six-month Namibian Police basic training course at the Katounyana Police Training Centre, renamed Simon Mutumba Mutumba, in the Zambezi Region graduated on Friday.
The basic training which started in July last year initially had about 250 recruits of whom 244 cadet constables successfully completed their training. The number of 244 includes members of the City Police.
Six were withdrawn due to various reasons, which include forging of their Grade 12 certificates, as reported in this newspaper last month.
In a statement read on his behalf by the Zambezi Regional Governor, Lawrence Sampofu, the Minister of Safety and Security Charles Namoloh called on the graduates to humble themselves and serve the community they came from as servants and not bosses.
It has long been a cry of members of the police that they are not paid high salaries.
Namoloh however stressed that joining the police is not all about salaries but about protecting the Namibian people.
“I should say you are the lucky ones, that you become your own breadwinners, however, this does not mean you have been recruited for the sake of earning salaries, No, your utmost and primary objective is to serve the nation by ensuring that crime is prevented, law and order is maintained, internal security, peace and stability are preserved, and lives and properties are protected,” said Namoloh.
At the same event the Katounyana Police Training Centre was renamed Simon Mutumba Mutumba Police Training Centre.
The late Simon Mutumba was a PLAN combatant who joined the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) in 1978 to fight against the apartheid colonial regime.
Among other duties he was a medic stationed at the PLAN Regional Operational Headquarters in Angola. Upon his return to Namibia, he joined the Namibian Defence Force and was later transferred to the Namibia Police Force in 1996.
He was promoted to chief inspector until his death in 2002. In a statement read on his behalf the Inspector General of the Namibian Police Sebastian Ndeitunga stated that Mutumba’s contribution has not gone unnoticed and thus the police force decided to rename the centre after him.