According to a report issued by the National Planning
Commission this week regarding crime in Namibia, the number
of crimes reported in Namibia 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 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 newspaper 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 (7,041 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 the Republikein newspaper 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 TOTAL 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 3 months we had 8564 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.
