WINDHOEK – By 15h30 yesterday afternoon there was no sign of either the politicians and/or senior government officials that police said were arrested for driving under the influence of liquor.
Police spokesman Deputy Commissioner Edwin Kanguatjivi had told a media briefing on Sunday that several politicians and students were among the 42 people arrested for drunk driving at roadblocks mounted across Windhoek on Friday. The only senior persons that were arraigned were former state prosecutor Halweendo Ndamangulukwa and traffic court magistrate Ileni Velikoshi. Ndamangulukwa is now working for the Ministry of Defense as a legal officer.
By the time this reporter had to leave the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on Lüderitz Street in order to make the newspaper deadline Velikoshi still had not appeared in court. He was supposed to make a first appearance on a charge of driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor or alternatively driving with an excessive blood alcohol level. Ndamangulukwa howver did make an appearance, but miraculously the record of his court proceedings was nowhere to be found after he appeared. It was further established that only four cases of driving under the influence of liquor were handled by the Katutura Magistrate’s Court, while another 11 including those mentioned above were arraigned at Lüderitz Street.
The nine cases that did appear before various magistrates at Lüderitz Street all involved ‘ordinary citizens’ for lack of a better term.
Efforts to get a list of the people arrested during the sting operation by Nampol and the City Police on Friday night proved futile, with Kanguatjivi saying he has not received the list yet. On Sunday during a media briefing Kanguatjivi told reporters that politicians, senior government officials and students were among those arrested for driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor.
By Roland Routh