Rundu ‘juvenile robbers’ behind bars

Five teenage boys accused of robbing a Zimbabwean truck driver at Rundu last week remain behind bars – with three of them missing out on the current national school examinations.

A Namibian Sun look into the lives of the youths revealed that they come from varying backgrounds, with some being orphans while others grew up alongside criminals or in child-headed households.

The suspects - aged between 16 and 19 - are locked up at the Rundu police holding cells after they allegedly attacked, stabbed and robbed the truck driver of items and cash worth N$10 000.

The incident happened on Saturday, 20 May, at around midnight.

They were denied bail in the Rundu Magistrate’s Court where they appeared on 22 May, with the matter remanded to 21 June for further police investigations.

Missing out

One of the suspects is a 16-year-old learner from Ndama Combined School, while two others happen to be 16-year-old twins from the Rundu Project School.

The remaining suspects - one 17 years old and the other identified as 19-year-old John Kufuna - were learners at Rundu’s Sikanduko Combined School, but have since dropped out.

The three suspects who are still part of the education system have missed out on the first-term exams which commenced last week.

All suspects are from Rundu’s Ndama informal settlement.

Life of crime

According to a teacher who knows the school-going suspects, the twins are known to be unruly because one of their older brothers is a known criminal.

“They have been unruly learners at our school and I am not surprised by what happened. One of their brothers is a known criminal and I think he is also in custody. As for the other learner, we are yet to determine what might have driven him to the life of crime, but we suspect his father might be absent from his life,” the source said.

The teacher added that issues such as poverty, child-headed households, living in a community where crime is rife and some children being orphans are amongst the contributing factors that push children as young as 12 into a life of crime.

“We all know what poverty can do to a society, but if you look at the issue of Ndama and other informal settlements in Rundu, there are too many child-headed homes. The absence of parental guidance makes them vulnerable to fall into the trap of becoming criminals.”

'We dealt with them'

Meanwhile, a number of community members interviewed over the issue of schoolboy gangs said youths are still terrorising their communities. This despite the police maintaining that they’ve dealt with the unruly elements.

In an interview with Namibian Sun, Kavango East police acting regional commander, deputy commissioner Lucia Kahuure, said with the police presence in the community, the issue has been resolved.

She added that the stabbing of the truck driver is an isolated incident.

“The situation is better. We don’t see it any more because of the operations that are happening on the ground. They are not visible any more because of the police presence on the ground.

“We don’t find them, they are scared. Nothing was reported so far,” Kahuure said.

Hotbed

Last November, police chief inspector-general Joseph Shikongo travelled to the Kavango East Region and ordered police to engage in robust operations to tackle the high crime rate in Rundu.

Namibian Sun has for months reported that the riverside town has become a hotbed of criminal activity, with gangs of young boys robbing residents of their valuables, while those who are found with cheap phones are asked to ‘eat’ them.

Those who resist the gangsters’ demands or fight back risk being seriously injured, or worse.

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