ACCORDING to a report issued by the National Planning Commission this week regarding crime in Namibia, the number of crimes reported dropped by 78% from 2006 to 2007. The report says 424 028 cases were reported between April 2006 and March 2007, whereas only 93 438 cases were reported during the 18 months from April 2007 to September 2008.
This means that for the 12 months from April 2006 to March 2007 we had an average of 35,335 crimes per month.
For the period April 2007 to March 2008 as well as for the period April 2008 to September 2008 we had an average of 5,191 crimes per month, therefore a reduction of 78% according to the NPC.
Let us now look at some other announcements by our government on the issue of crime.
In The Namibian newspaper of 21 April 2008 the Hon. Minister of Safety and Security during the budget debate of his Ministry had the following to say: “Crime had gone up by 3.8% over the last financial year”. The period that the Hon. Minister is referring to is the period April 2007 to March 2008, the same period where the NPC had a reduction of 78%.
In The Namibian of 24 April 2007 the Deputy Minister of Safety and Security during the budget debate had the following to say: “Crime decreased by 1.15%, as only 84,497 cases were reported in 2006 (7041 per month) compared to 85,484 cases in 2005” – the period that the Hon. Deputy Minister is referring to is the period April 2006 to March 2007, the same period that the NPC is now saying we had 424,028 cases.
In Republikein of 8 April 2009 the Hon. Minister of Safety and Security said the following when answering a question by Hon. Johan de Waal of the DTA of Namibia: “’n TOTAAL van 25 692 misdaadgevalle is landwyd vir die tydperk wat strek van 1 November 2008 tot 31 Januarie 2009 aangemeld.” (“A total of 25 692 crimes were reported for the whole country for the period 1 November 2008 to 31 January 2009.”) This means that for those three months we had 8 564 cases per month.
It is clearly election time and Swapo is pulling out all the stops to convince the nation and the world that everything is hunky dory in Namibia and life has never been as good as now.
Only a fool could believe these figures. To expect that any Namibian will believe that there was a reduction in crime of 78% in any given period is to expect that all Namibians are fools.
It is common knowledge that crime is becoming completely out of control.
Every Namibian experiences the dramatic increase of crime over the past two years and no one should try to convince us otherwise because we simply don’t believe it. We are also very aware of the fact that perhaps 50% of crimes committed are reported – the other 50% remain unreported because of people’s lack of faith in the police and justice system.
Most burglaries are in any case only reported by people with insurance policies because without a case number one cannot claim from your insurance.
In our opinion, there are two main reasons for the increase in crime:
• According to the NPC report there are 11 339 police officers in Namibia, thus about 1 for every 106 people of all ages in the country – or, if we add the approximately 30 000 security guards in Namibia, then there is some kind of law enforcement person for about every 50 people of all ages in Namibia. This is pretty scary and almost makes us a police state.
The crime, however, increases because, in the first place, our police officers and security guards are not properly trained nor properly paid to fight crime. Combined with this is that in many cases, the police and security guards are often part of the problem, because many of them belong to or work with the crime syndicates to supplement their salaries. Cases are often so badly investigated by the police that they have to be withdrawn or suspects are found not guilty, not because they are not guilty but because the case is unprovable.
• Our justice system is unequal to the task of punishing those who are, against all odds, arrested and brought to court for a crime. They postpone cases for up to five years because of a lack of commitment to their work by court officials; bail is given at the drop of a hat in some cases while in others people remain in custody for years without being charged. While on bail, many of these criminals re-offend, only to be re-arrested and given bail again.
The fact is that if some of the most senior politicians in our country, such as Sam Nujoma and Pendukeni Ivuula-Ithana, are free to incite people to murder Germans, British and American people, and Ivuula-Ithana goes on to make intolerant and racist statements against people like Gwen Lister and others, what do you expect from ordinary members of society? Surely they will follow the example set by their leaders?
When our government sets us an example of corruption and criminality, we should not be surprised when the people follow that example.
