John Muyamba
RUNDU – Rundu Police Station commander Chief Inspector Andreas Mushongo Haingura is being redeployed to police regional headquarters to be in charge of a storeroom of the police with his position filled by Chief Inspector Paulus Mbandu Hauwanga, who has taken over as the new station commander.
Police Inspector-General Sebastian Ndeitunga who last week hinted heads could roll in the aftermath of the Rundu massacre uncharacteristically moved with lightning speed, redeploying the station commander to a lesser post and there is speculation the axe could swing further rather sooner than later.
New Era is not yet clear on the handover and when exactly will these changes come into effect as panicked senior police officials have chosen to remain silent on the matter.
Residents of Rundu were organising a peaceful demonstration against the administration of the Rundu police charge office, demanding three things – visibility of law enforcement in terms of patrol day and night in all locations, community substations in all communities surrounding Rundu, availability of transport at all times, but residents were allegedly told by the police regional management that they should not demonstrate and were intimidated in a meeting held last week.
The Ndama location homicide incident was the reason why the demonstration was planned to take place as residents are unhappy that five people died due to suspected police negligence, a crime which could have been avoided if the police responded but the complainant was sent home and eventually bludgeoned to death with other family members over a week ago. Many complaints are being received across the country that police hide behind the perceived lack of transport to attend to serious crimes and the public is losing confidence in the police as a result.