By Emma Kakololo
WINDHOEK
An anticipated ceremony to symbolically ‘bury’ crime during the First National Conference on Crime Prevention and Safety has been called off due to public outcry.
The emblematical burial was intended to mark the closure of the first annual national conference on Crime Prevention and Safety that starts on September 24 until 26, 2007 at the Safari Court Hotel in Windhoek.
AVBOB, one of the leading insurance and funeral service providers pledged to provide the coffin, while the metaphorical shrine was yet to be determined.
Member of the conference committee, Tokkie Nchido, yesterday said the special ceremony was cancelled due to disapproval from the public.
“The public disagree that it is not possible to bury crime but that we can work hard to reduce it. We agree with the public since the conference is for the nation and that it (burial) is not appropriate.”
She said the public case was simple and obvious: “The public argument is that crime is a daily routine. It will be a mockery to those people who are going to attend the ceremony, today they bury crime and yet tomorrow someone is going to be killed or robbed.”
She urged all stakeholders passionate to fight crime to attend the conference and find a strategy to reduce crime in the country.
Crime has increased drastically in the country by 13 percent from 2000 to 2006. In addition, the country’s rate in violent crime is the highest on the African continent.
The country has a rate of 27 percent on physical assault, the highest among African countries.
The figure might look small, but is far beyond the middle distribution of all 18 African Afrobarometer countries with Nigeria second highest at 19 percent followed by South Africa with 16 percent.
Mali has the lowest rate of only three percent, followed by Madagascar with five percent, according to a research that was commissioned by the University of Cape Town in December last year.
The research results also demonstrate that although the levels of reported experience with crime and concerns over safety were indeed quite high in Namibia, they were by no means exceptional compared to other African countries.
Compared to other Africans, about 32 percent Namibians fear crime in their own homes while 49 percent South Africans feared for the same thing, with Zambians and Kenyans the highest at 59 percent each.
In Addition, Namibians’ evaluation of the police turned far more negative than those of other Africans when asked about their personal experiences. Just 38 percent said it was easy for them to obtain help from the police, in South Africa only 40 percent while Nigeria and Benin were below 20 percent. Almost two-thirds Basothos found it easy to get help from their police.
The conference is conducted by the Centre for Training and Projects Development (CTPD) in collaboration with the Government and is aimed at providing rich opportunities to exchange ideas and experience between crime prevention experts, decision-makers, and practitioners across the country under the theme: Making Namibia a Safer Country for Investment, Tourism and Human Inhabitance through Intensified Crime Prevention Approach’.???_?_’???_?’???_???