WINDHOEK – The City of Windhoek recently spent close to N$5 million to upgrade their fleet with the purchase eight 2019 Volkswagen Golf VII GTi 2.0 TSi DSG vehicles. According to the City of Windhoek, the popular and powerful Golf VII GTi’s were purchased from Indongo Toyota and EL Fueg Investment cc in collaboration with Autohaus Windhoek at just over N$614 000 each, totaling N$4 913 085.76 for the eight vehicles.
Even though El Fueg Investment cc was not in the mood to answer questions regarding the deal, the City of Windhoek (CoW) was much more forthcoming with their information, emphasising that the funds used to purchase the vehicles was sponsored by the Roads Fund Administration (RFA) as a contribution in relation to traffic policing.
“Due to the financial difficulties, the CoW is experiencing, the RFA deemed it necessary to purchase the vehicles for the City Police,” said CoW’s Manager for Corporate Communications, Harold Akwenye.
Akwenye explained that the City Police fines issued to motorists goes directly to the government via the RFA.
“In order for the City Police to effectively continue policing and enforce the penalties to road user offenders, the RFA decided to purchase these vehicles for the City Police,” Akwenye clarified.
He added that the new vehicles will be used for Very, Very Important Persons (VVIP) escort as well as City Police responses. Akwenye further noted that the current Toyota Corollas used by the CoW for VIP escorts have aged and were inefficient due to their engine capacity since they can’t keep up with the Mercedes Benz and Land Cruiser vehicles used by the Presidency, Prime Minister as well as the foreign delegations.
Akwenye added that after some research done, the VW Golf GTI was found to be the most reliable vehicle at high speed and is the most balanced and safe vehicle to be use in the required environments.
The newly purchased vehicles are being insured through Momentum via Minet insurance brokers for a total value or N$ 4 464 000, at an annual premium of almost N$66 960 and a quarterly premium of N$16 740. This means the quarterly premium per vehicle is N$2 092.50.
Meanwhile, Akwenye stated that the CoW has also ordered
12 other vehicles which are 1.8 litre Toyota Corollas, which are to be used for daily policing operations. An additional seven Nissan 2.5 TDI D/Cab 4×4 have also been ordered to be used for daily operations, merely to reach rocky and steep areas, especially the informal settlements and the surrounding farms and areas.
“Currently we use a log book system. We intend to introduce a computer aided dispatch system (where you can monitor the vehicle from the call centre) that will be complemented with a tracking system,” Akwenye explained regarding the monitoring of the newly acquired fleet.