Namibia Postal Holdings Ltd has strongly dismissed suggestions its courier service is involved in the transportation of liquor during the lockdown.
Nampost spokesperson Wilson Ashikoto made these remarks following an enquiry after this publication learnt through the Oshikoto regional police that courier vehicles were among those transporting illicit alcohol and other counterfeit products.
He, however, confirmed there are two cases involving alcohol, but the police confiscated all of it.
“People misrepresent information when filling up the waybill, while initially they know there are stuff covered under such consignment being couriered,” he said.
The Oshikoto police at the weekend stated courier companies like Nampost were being used to transport prohibited goods under the current Covid-19 state of emergency stage 2 period.
The prohibited goods, including beer, whiskey, cigarettes and cannabis, with a combined value of N$280 900, were confiscated at checkpoints in the region.
“Nampost does not transport alcohol or other prohibited products. So this case you are referring to is news to me, maybe I am still to be briefed,” he denied.
Furthermore, he said they have a policy in place where they screen products from the depot to see to it that all products are in line with their operations.
If anything is spotted, they usually alert the authorities for further action.
“As it stands, I don’t know whether such products were found being transported or it was just for consumption by the drivers. Usually when something like that surface, we launch an investigation to determine how such products ended up being transported. We start from the depot along the line till delivery and so on. In addition, we are not allowed to load things along the way other than the depot,” reiterated Shikoto.
“Anyhow you still find people that tries to be clever and would wrap such products that one will not identify. But such cases are very rare.”
– osimasiku@nepc.com.na