The purchasing of a latest fleet of city-police cars and equipment to the tune of N$20 million by the City of Windhoek (CoW) has been met by backlash from some quarters of society who have slammed it as a misplaced priority.
Community activist Eliphas Nghitomoka has said that purchasing police vehicles will not decrease crime statistics but putting the money towards opening up the economy to take people away from the streets.
“I see it as a joke. It does not even add any value to the masses living without basic services. If you are talking about buying cars and equipment it does not even come closer to the needs of the masses. Not so long ago we were at the municipality and I am really shocked that after so many so many petitions we did not receive anything closer to what we demanded but you see municipality does not recognise the fact that there are people that have to use a bucket to relieve themselves this is in Havana and Goreangab and Havana.
They bought cars for ease of access but what does it do for the ordinary citizen in Kilimanjaro, it means we are not counted. It means they look at us as criminals. It means you want to be able to arrest the criminals, the poor who do not have basic necessities and they will think of grabbing land. If that was not the case the city would have put that money towards ablution facilities,” he said.
He said addressing unemployment does not mean the city has to increase the budget of the police.
Despite receiving 39 new vehicles this afternoon, CoW Chief Executive Officer Robert Kahimise said the municipality police needs 100 more.
In 2018, CoW had to get rid of 102 City Police vehicles which was recommended by an audit.
“About 102 vehicles were declared unfit and subsequently auctioned off as per the recommendation of the audit conducted by the municipal fleet management in 2018,” Kahimise said.
Kahimise who was speaking at the handover ceremony said the new fleet will lighten City Police’s plight of fighting crime in the capital but they still need more than a 100 vehicles.
The fleet includes 6 new ford rangers, 11 Nissan bakkies, 2 quantum minibuses, 8 toyota corolla quests, 1 hilux bakkie and 8 Volkswagen Polo Vivos.
Last year February, RFA also sponsored City Police with 8 2019 Volkswagen Golf GTI 2.0 vehicles which cost about N$614 000 each, totaling N$4 913 085.76.
Currently, the Golf GTIs are used for VVIP escorts.
