Crime Desk
THE arrest of a police officer with his official vehicle reveals how upgraded technology is tightening the noose around cattle rustlers in a fight back of the farming community in the meat producing areas of Erongo, Khomas, Hardap and Omaheke regions.
The latest embarrassment shows roadside cameras filming and exposing a police officer using three local suspects to carry the meat of two slaughtered cattle to his vehicle oblivious of the possibility that his crime might be filmed.
The incident on C28 Daan Viljoen happened this morning.
The past weeks also resulted in the arrests of various policemen as part of rustling syndicates who are exposing a deadly cocktail of police ignorance, arrogance and incompetence to assist communities who are losing faith in the police as serious partners in crime fighting efforts and now heavily relay on citizen cooperation and the use of the latest technology.
In a shocking development, a fight broke out between the police and the community of Epukiro Pos-3 after a farmers’ group under the leadership of Sandie Tjarunda uncovered the loss of dockets, and the negligence of the police for its failure to follow up on the communities’ suspicions of serious cases of stock theft.
The Epikuro farmers traced and interrogated suspects who exposed some police officers, leading to serious mistrust between the police and the community.
The Epukiro farmers say they are now arrested for assaulting suspected thieves and exposing police collaboration.
Just more than a month ago, a policeman was arrested near Hoachanas in the Hardap Region after the community alerted the police of a suspicious blue vehicle driving around at night.
He was arrested for 20 slaughtered sheep, which the policeman issued the permits to allow his loot to be transported.
The incident was one of the biggest exposures of police complicity and a long and arduous investigation between farmers, the neighbourhood watches and the police.
Incidentally, the head of the stock theft unit of Khomas was also arrested a while ago for his alleged involvement in cattle rustling.
It is suspected that he was a long time key figure who operated with impunity as most of the information was reported to him and kept him informed about the strategies of farmers.
The notorious triangle of Wilhelmstal, Usakos and Omaruru have turned into a wild west frontier with cattle rustlers escaping from custody as quick as they are court, while dockets disappear as a matter of routine.
The former and current ministers of police, Frans Kapofi and Albert Kawana, have implemented various measures to curb the crime of stock theft, but it seems the police are becoming a bigger obstacle in the efforts of the strengthening of police presence.
Farmers and farmers’ unions in both the commercial and communal areas are confident that the increase deployment of roadside cameras will dismantle some of the roving marauders in the remoter areas like Ovitoto, Omatjete and the frontier areas with Angola and Zambia, where rustlers are importing serious animal illnesses like lung sickness and foot and mouth diseases with their bounty posing incalculable risk to Namibia’s international export markets.
