RUNDU – The police duty point (substation) opened in November last year under a tree at Ndama location in Rundu has been of great help to the residents – as well as police who now attend to crime in the area with relative ease.
“People are aware of our duty point and are coming to visit regularly, we are attending to the community. We are doing this to assist in covering the administrative part of the police, to enhance communication between the police and residents, in addition to keeping the police and residents in contact, we are also working on ensuring mobility of the police in terms of patrol and so on,” Station Commander for Rundu Police Charge Office, Chief Inspector Paulus Hawanga said.
When New Era visited the Ndama police duty point which operates under a tree on Tuesday, Hawanga was found visiting to see how things are going, he told this reporter that things are fine as services are being delivered.
According to him, the move to establish police duty points is really serving as a relief for the one and only Rundu Police Charge Office as people are served in their communities unlike in the past when all would flock to the only charge office. “As a station commander, I am happy as people are being assisted at our duty points outside the charge office, instead of walking long distances to the charge office, people come to this duty point to get the needed police services, saving them time from standing in long queues at the charge office which is always full,” Hawanga said.
Hawanga urged the Rundu community to make use of police services that are being brought closer to them, recently formalised Kaisosi and Sauyemwa settlements have had substations which are still operational. “This Ndama duty station was opened late last year and last week the police opened the Kehemu duty station (opened on Friday) which operates in a corrugated iron sheet shade at Batista Church in Kehemu. All this are there to strengthen community policing,” he said. The poorly resourced duty stations of Kehemu and Ndama which are both under Rundu police charge station are operational daily from 08h00 to 17h00, enabling residents to open cases, certify their documents and make police declarations amongst others.
“Uniform investigators will also be deployed at this duty stations, to investigate minor cases like those of house breaking, theft, assault and so on,” he said.
“I feel happy that this duty station was availed as we get to be assisted without going to town, I came to do a police declaration,” said Elizabeth Siwoko, at Ndama.
The station commander informed this reporter that several businesses have requested to assist in building temporary structures for the Kehemu and Ndama police duty points.
Rundu currently has a population of 85 700 people scattered in different settlements around the town, namely Tutungeni, Queenspark, Millenium Park, Rainbow Village, Safari, Nkarapamwe, Donkerhoek, Old NHE, Mass Houses NHE, Ndama, Kehemu, Kaisosi, Sauyemwa, Kasote, Sikanduko and Tuhingireni and some live in unrecognised shanty towns around the outskirts of town but the town only had one police station and two substations which caters for all. Now there is the Ndama duty station and Kehemu duty station which was opened on Friday.