Smuggler’s paradise: Police lose ngungula battle

A police officer from Oshikango ended up with bite marks on his arm after a fuel smuggler thought he could escape by using his teeth on the law enforcer. Despite the pain, the officer made the arrest.

The incident took place at around noon on Wednesday when a white Land Cruiser approached over 100 fuel smugglers at the Namibia-Angola border at Oshikango.

As soon as the vehicle stopped, police officers jumped out and, within seconds, the scene turned into a classic episode of ‘Tom and Jerry’. Members of the police force went on the chase, aiming to confiscate the containers of fuel. The smugglers took off in all directions, and due to the bad condition of the roads in the area, many escaped into no-man’s-land between Namibia and Angola. Others sneaked through a damaged fence at the Angolan border.

Helpless

In no-man’s-land, the smugglers loiter languidly, seemingly without a care in the world. The sand, dotted with black puddles, exudes a haze of fumes that creates the effect of a mirage. The Namibian Police officers cannot arrest the suspects from the other side of the fence, so they watch on helplessly. Unbothered, members of the Angolan police go on with their daily duties.

Judging by the number of containers each smuggler is carrying, one would guess that close to half a million litres of fuel is being transported between Namibia and Angola in this smuggler's marketplace.

From here, the fuel reaches the black market in Namibia where ordinary people queue to buy it. The motorists are unfazed by the presence of the police. There’s no shortage of luxury vehicles in the makeshift service station’s queue, waiting for the smugglers to come out of hiding once the authorities leave.

According to the smugglers, the fuel also goes into police officers’ cars. “They themselves are corrupt! They [confiscate] the containers, but they don’t hand them over to the stations. In fact, they give some back to us to sell for them,” a member of the group said.

Homestead service stations

Some women carry their babies on their backs. Hundreds of men and women, wearing oil-stained clothes, carry their containers, transferring fuel from one to the other and then fill up cars. The smugglers use hand signals meant to confuse the police. They’ve turned their homesteads into service stations.

Two boys sit nearby. One cradles his head in his hands, as though worried about what the future holds. He asks whether we want fuel. He is the 100th person to do so. He tells us that the house where he stores his containers is very close by, and points to it.

Subsistence farmers in the area have created spaces within their mahangu fields where motorists can purchase the smuggled fuel and park their cars for filling. This makes it easier for the smugglers to avoid arrest.

“Why are you not supporting our hustle? We do not have a choice. We have to do this to put food on the table. I hope the police officers don’t return because I am tired of running,” one of the boys says as he lays his head down to take a nap. His ‘partner in crime’ keeps a lookout.

With his eyes closed, the boy says: “They won’t be able to arrest me now. I have nothing on me which says I am selling. The fuel is safe in that house. I find the customers and take them there”.

A losing battle

The Namibian government has been hard at work to stop the smuggling of fuel, which continues unabated - choking the legal fuel business.

“The police chase us. Lock you up for three days before they release you. This is not major for us. You can continue your sales after they have released you. The only issue is they beat you,” another smuggler who joins the conversation says.

The smugglers say they charge N$250 per 25-litre container. And those who wish to cross into Angola themselves to fill up at Santa Clara can do so after they’ve paid a fee to cross into another country. This can, however, be bypassed with a bribe.

In Walvis Bay, the price of petrol is N$22.30 per litre, diesel 50ppm costs N$21.77, and diesel 10ppm costs N$21.97.

“You can fill up a small car like the taxis for N$180, full tank. And the Land Cruisers can fill up for less than N$500. But at Namibian service stations, you need close to N$2 000 to fill up a small car and N$5 000 for the big ones. These prices are heaven,” one of the smugglers says as he walks away to make a sale. Mid-way, he stops and adds: “The trade cannot be legalised. Even us as illegal sellers, we know this”.

Sucked dry

Several service stations at Omafo and Ondobe in the Helao Nafidi constituency have closed down.

Jafet Nakanue, the owner of EJ Service Station in Oshikango, says he partnered with Puma for the franchise, which is a 25-year agreement, and has been in business for less than 10 years. He only made a profit back in 2016 when he opened the service station, he narrates.

Nakanue says that was the year before the smuggling started, ‘killing’ the majority of service stations in the area.

“In 2016, I made 100% sales. The years that followed were a nightmare. Things are bad.”

During the Covid-19 pandemic, their sales improved when the borders were closed, but soon they began to decline again when the smugglers were back in business, Nakanue says.

So dire is the situation that he had to lay off some of his workers.

“If the price goes up while I have stock in the tank, I can make some money. The problem is it sells very slow. In 2016, a tank would last three or four days, and you’d have to re-order. Now, it can go to over a month,” he laments.

Nakanue says he had to sell half of his service station to Puma to stay afloat, but even that hasn’t been able to save his business.

“We are not surviving. We are getting into debt. We are bleeding. There’s no business and no one is saving you. We are being sucked dry, and soon I will lose the entire service station.”

He wanted to know why he cannot sell fuel from Angola at his service station, adding that the customers who prefer the ‘clean fuel’ can purchase it.

By 18:00, the makeshift service station is still a hive of activity. Not even the approaching darkness has stopped them. At some point, the heavens open up, but business continues.