OVER 1 400 fines have been handed out by the police across the country due to people breaching Covid-19 state of emergency
regulations between 28 March and 29 May this year. The majority of offences are related to alcohol, Deputy Inspector General Oscar Embubulu said on Monday. According to the police, 734 suspects were fined for contravening alcohol-related state of emergency regulations during the stage one of the lockdown period that started on 28 March and ended 4 May.
In stage two, 374 suspects were fined for this violation. Embubulu said the least violated regulation under stage one was the prohibition related to travel, for which 28 suspects were fined. In total, 904 violations were recorded during stage one while during stage two, a total
of 1 117 violations were recorded. Of the 1 117 violations registered during stage two, only 167 people managed to pay their fines, meaning 950 fines are still outstanding.
According to Embubulu, offenders are either fined N$2 000 for admission of guilt or given the option to appear in court and defend the charges. “Meaning those who did not pay once the period of appearing in court comes, they will be arraigned to appear to defend their innocence,” he said.
In addition, Embubulu said looking at statistics, crime had reduced during the state of emergency period when compared to 68 days earlier. He said the reduction in crime is attributed to more visibility of the members of the security cluster during the state of emergency. “During the 68 days before the state of emergency, 1 639 serious crimes were recorded nationally. This tally dropped to 1 369 during the state of emergency, accounting to 16.5 reduction in serious crimes. However, Embubulu said there was an increase in serious crimes such as housebreaking
at business premises, fraud, stock theft and possession and dealing in drugs in regions such as Erongo, //Kharas, Oshikoto and Zambezi