Members of the Windhoek City Police, the University of Namibia (UNAM) Security team, and the Student Representative Council (SRC) recently met to discuss possible measures to improve student safety around campus.
This engagement follows an increase in criminal activities along the Hendrick Witbooi drive and the intersection leading to the university’s secondary gate and the Emona hostel – a route students often use to get to the Baines Shopping Centre.
According to the UNAM security team, these robberies started to peak in May 2022, which called for immediate engagement with relevant stakeholders to ensure students’ safety outside of the university premises.
During the engagement, Maria Muyoba, Senior Superintendent at the City of Windhoek Police, stated that crime prevention is a community effort that requires all stakeholders’ contributions.
“Even though it is the police’s responsibility to keep everyone safe, the police cannot do it alone – we need to form a partnership with students and UNAM to close the gaps that criminals use in this area”, explained Muyoba.
Forging such partnerships will speed up crime prevention measures, remarked Cillie Kapolo, superintendent at the city police. Kapolo also suggested that the SRC initiate a student safety programme that the police and UNAM security can support.
“We need to initiate a ‘student against crime’ committee that will serve as a channel to listen to the safety issues of students and relay information to students about the criminal trends in the area”, said Kapolo
“Through this platform, we can directly provide the contact details of the commander on shift for students to contact, should they feel endangered. This will cut down on delays caused by contacting the call centre first”, added the superintendent.
Safety resolutions from the meeting include intense patrol along the Hendrik Witbooi drive; initiating police sunrise operations; de-bushing the area; creating communication groups; and a safety campaign.
Immanuel Simao, SRC for Internal Affairs, committed to take up initiatives to sensitise students about safety measures on and off-campus.
“On behalf of the student council, we are committing that we will play our part in sensitising students”, said Simao. He further urged UNAM security and City Police to ensure their presence is felt, even though crime prevention is a collective effort.
Chairing the engagement, was the Head of UNAM Security Services, Mr Albert Mazila who thanked everyone for taking time out of their busy schedules to attend this meeting. He further remarked that such commitment leads to improved student safety.
