Zebaldt Ngaruka 

EPUKIRO – The spokesperson of the Community Against Stock Theft Organisation (CASO), Sandi Tjaronda, said there is a need for the Namibian Police and community police to work together in the fight against stock theft in the Omaheke region. 

Following NamPol’s recent week-long community outreach programme on crime prevention and stock theft in the region, Tjaronda told New Era that the police tour of the region was a step in the right direction. 

He said there is a need to close the gap of the trust deficit between the police and the community, and that can be achieved through bold actions.

“There is a need to protect the bruised image and credibility of the police force, stemming from years of reports of the unethical conduct of members of the Force. These include collaboration with criminals,  negligence and gross misconduct,” Tjaronda said.

The spokesperson added that stock theft is very complex to bring an end to, but efforts such as these from NamPol show that formidable strides towards nipping it in the bud are in the making. 

He highlighted that there is an increasing number of juveniles,  women, traders, transport operators, parents and relatives of offenders who are directly or indirectly conniving with criminals.

“We need to target them in our engagements so that the message arrives home. We need to identify the root cause, including the buyers of stolen animals or meat from stolen stock,” Tjaronda submitted. 

These market forces manifest the greater demand, which adversely generates the supply obviously through illicit channels. 

“This distorts market prices, and may have adverse impacts on our beef from entering lucrative international markets,” he emphasised. 

On the issue of a shortage of police vehicles in the region, the spokesperson said it is now something of the past.

“We are grateful for the positive response of the regional commander, Commissioner Heinrich Tjiveze, on the issue. We hope the police stations will deliberately cultivate and leverage the power of collaboration and coordination to build lasting partnerships with the community to eliminate bottlenecks around transport and logistics to respond better to crime,” he added.

Tjaronda also shared with this publication that  the community anti-theft organisation has put in motion its formalisation with the Namibian Police. 

“This will foster greater collaboration and a collective response to crime in Epukiro, Eiseb Block as well as neighbouring communities in the Omaheke region,” he said.

He further recommended that future planning of outreach programmes in the region should be done in closer collaboration with the community.

“It was fortunate that the event coincided with the school prize-giving function, where parents were already congregated.  Otherwise, it would have resulted in a low turnout,” he said.

The event came at a time when farmers were dealing with Lumpy Skin Disease in the region, and many could have been busy with vaccination or searching for their livestock to kraal them for vaccination.

The week-long community engagement was attended by farmers, farmworkers, farmers’ associations and members of community police forums from various parts of the Omaheke region.

Topics such as crime prevention and stock theft were highly deliberated.