2015-02-18Staff Report 2 WINDHOEK – Plans are at an advanced stage for a traffic court to be set up in Windhoek that will deal with the congestion of traffic offenders. Adam Eiseb, the Deputy Chief of the Traffic Management Unit of the Windhoek City Police informed New Era last week that the area identified is the City Police office on the corner of Bismark Street and Sam Nujoma Drive. He referred New Era to the Ministry of Justice on when the court will be operational. Thousands of warrants of arrest have been issued by the Namibian Police (NamPol)’s Traffic Law Enforcement Unit in Windhoek since January 1, 2010, Nampa reported last week. NamPol Warrant Officer Zachariah Amakali was quoted by Nampa as saying that 17 923 warrants were issued to motorists, who were violating traffic laws and failed to pay their admission of guilt fees. Some of the warrants of arrest were issued as far back as 2009. Yesterday, Simon Tangeni Idipo, Senior Public Relations officer in the Ministry of Justice, said the Ministry of Justice will be ready to deploy human capital or human power that will run these courts as soon as the City Police finishes constructing the Traffic Courts as proposed and agreed. The Windhoek City Police through its chief, Abraham Kanime, approached the Ministry of Justice on the possibility of coming up with courts that are solely to focus on dealing with traffic and road rules violations in the Khomas Region, the public relations officer said. “The City Police agreed that it will bear the total cost in constructing the two courts for this purpose and the Ministry of Justice’s mandate was and remains as to provide the staff that will run these courts. Once these courts are finished constructing is only when our responsibility comes in, as of now the ministry is still waiting for these buildings (courts) to be finished then we can deploy the personnel to function them,” Idipo said. Three years ago, New Era reported that a record 35 218 warrants of arrest are pending against thousands of drivers in Windhoek alone, 12 335 of which are outstanding warrants for the arrest of taxi drivers. Last year, Eiseb informed New Era that the creation of municipal courts could go a long way in reducing pressure on the magistrate’s courts when it comes to dealing with traffic offences. The proposition to create municipal courts has nothing to do with increasing revenue. He said he was not happy with the fact that traffic offences are viewed as less important in the magistrate’s courts compared to other offences. 2015-02-18Staff Report 2
