KEETMANSHOOP – Plans to have an additional police station constructed on the border between Kronlein and Tseiblaagte residential areas in Keetmanshoop in the //Karas Region is looking up after the municipality approved two erven for the premises.
Chief Executive Officer of the Keetmanshoop Municipality, Quinton Visagie, told New Era that the two erven worth N$65 849 and N$229 514 respectively were approved at the last council meeting.
According to the Police Crime Investigations Coordinator in the //Karas Region, Deputy Commissioner Rudolf Isaaks a police station in that particular spot has been long overdue.
“It will be a really good thing if we can bring the services to the people who live in those two locations who must all come in to town which is a considerable distance in times of emergencies,” Isaaks said, adding that 90 percent of all crime committed in Keetmanshoop takes place in Kronlein and Tseiblaagte.
Isaaks also pointed out that there is a serious need for the municipality to install lights at the dark but most frequented areas in town.
“If they could put lights across the bridge that side of the mall and at that open spot between Kronlein and Noordhoek . Those two areas are where the most murders and crimes are taking place and because of the poor lighting we find it difficult to catch the culprits. If there are lights then people would at least be able to tell us what the person was wearing, which would make it easy for the police to track suspects,” he explained.
Last year the nation was shaken to its roots after it came to light that a string of murders were committed by a group of teenage schoolboys in Keetmanshoop.
The schoolboys were accused of three murders which included the murder of Augustinus Joseph, 46, whose body was found with a single stab wound to the chest between Tseiblaagte and Kronlein.
One of the murders took place at the bridge close to the governor’s office, also one of the dark spots indicated by Isaaks that needs lighting.
Another murder that also stunned residents was the fatal beating of a 6-year-old boy by 29-year-old Desmond Vries, which murder took place in the Tseiblaagte area in Keetmanshoop.