Walvis Bay

Erongo Urban Constituency Councillor Hafeni Ndemula says Namibians should play a more active role in reporting and combating crime.

He says every woman and man must become a police officer and should also not only know the police when disaster strikes and turn a blind eye when it comes to reporting criminal activities.

He said this during a press briefing to announce the Turn Back Crime campaign to be launched at Kuisebmond Stadium here on Saturday.

The Turn Back Crime campaign is Interpols’s global awareness campaign, which highlights the dangers of organised crime and its effects on society.  The campaign aims to reduce the impact of crime by engaging ordinary citizens to play a more integral part in reporting such crimes while at the same time creating a safer environment. The campaign was first launched during the Police Day that was held in Oshakati in February this year. According to Ndemula, the underlying theme of the campaign is that of organised crime and how it infiltrates different facets of life and how ordinary citizens can make a meaningful contribution by working closely with crime-fighting organisations such as NamPol.

He added that the campaign aims to make people aware of the extent to which networked crime drives many crimes and how they can protect themselves by understanding the wider implication of organised crime in society.

“Over the past years, Namibia and Erongo in particular witnessed an increase in cases related to domestic violence, drug abuse, poaching - which resulted in the loss of lives, destruction of families as well as loss of state revenue.

“Therefore, action is not only needed from the police but from the whole society to play their part in preventing these fateful forms of crime. The Turn Back Crime is one tool that can help Namibia achieve this,” he stressed.

Speaking at the event, the Commissioner of the Namibian Police in the Erongo Region, Samuel //Hoebeb highlighted crimes such as stock theft, domestic violence and housebreakings as the most common crimes in the region currently.

He also said drug operations, scams run by individuals targeting vulnerable Namibians, credit card fraud and money laundering are also some of the crimes the region is dealing with.

“Human trafficking also took place in our region but we managed to make a successful arrest of which one person was prosecuted,” he said.