Let’s practice restraint

With the festive season in full swing, it is a time of cheer, celebration and reflection for many Namibians.

We also welcome many visitors to our shores, who have come to experience our hospitality and the beauty of the scenery we often take for granted.

This is also a time of immense danger on our roads, which claim many lives at this time of the year. We implore all road users to practice courteousness and restraint. Let us have good attitudes, let us not drink and drive and arrive alive to wherever we may be travelling.

We also want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the many Namibians who are still working this time of the year, in a bid to ensure our safety.

Here we are talking about emergency service personnel, the police and other law-enforcement officers who are tirelessly striving to make the 2018 festive season a safe one.

At the launch of Operation Hornkranz last Friday, which aims to minimise crime and road fatalities during the festive season, President Hage Geingob was at pains to explain why law enforcement is so critical this time of the year.

Geingob said the Namibian nation has been crying out because of crime and that something has to be done.

He also acknowledged that he knows police officers should be resting and spending time with their families during the festive season, but that some of them have to work to make sure that citizens are behaving and complying with the law.

We also want to join the president in thanking our men and women in uniform for their sterling efforts.

We also want to call on all citizens to take care of themselves and their families. For too long we have witnessed an unending stream of crimes taking place, which can often be prevented if we don’t overindulge in terms of alcohol consumption. Let us practice restraint in this regard as well, as we welcome a new year and its promise of a new start.