Staff reporter
Windhoek-The police have opened three cases against the ‘struggle kids’ camping at Ndilimani farm at Brakwater following a hijacking of an emergency service fire truck by members of the group last Friday.
Cases opened on Friday are arson, driving a vehicle without the owner’s consent, theft and malicious damage to property.
The police visited the camp on Tuesday morning and conducted a search for missing equipment from the truck.
According to the Khomas Regional Police crime investigation coordinator Deputy Commissioner Abner Agas, two bolt cutters went missing from the fire engine after firefighters were summoned to extinguish a fire near Ndilimani camp.
He said that after the firefighters arrived the fire truck was hijacked and the driver attacked.
Agas said one of the ‘struggle kids’ drove the fire truck into their camp and the police want to know who that was. He said they also want to know who lit the fire in the vicinity that destroyed a fence.
One bolt cutter has been recovered but the other is still missing.
“We are here to get the bolt cutter and it must be among one of you. We are peaceful. If you don’t want to bring it we will search your makeshift structures one by one. If you bring it we will not conduct any search,” said Agas.
Nampol Khomas Regional Police coordinator Sylvanus Nghishidimbwa said no one was arrested but they were busy identifying the suspects.
He said the police recovered a gas mask from the group.
“It is not easy to arrest everybody and it is not easy to identify the suspect among a group of 400 people, but we are using techniques and procedures to identify the suspects,”Nghishidimbwa said.
After the police search the group’s spokesperson Jerry Hamukwaya told New Era via telephone that the police did not find the equipment but they will return again.
The group also gathered at Bokomo premises on Tuesday morning begging for food but they were informed the company couldn’t assist them. They then returned to their campsite.