THOUSANDS of errant motorists cost Windhoek City Police a staggering N$6 million in uncollected revenue accruing from warrants issued for failure to abide by the road rules.

The total number of taxi drivers alone who have not paid their warrant bails to date are 7, 994, while the general public stands at 12,805.
Given that a maximum bail for a motorist is N$300, these translate to N$6,239,700, Police Chief, Abraham Kanime confirmed.
Further, with a whooping 300 cases reported per week in the city alone, calculations show that the institution stands to lose over N$2,820,000 annually – a situation that will slow down road operations.
Kanime told Informanté this week his team is overwhelmed by the current development.
He said despite efforts to reduce the number of defaulters from 12,000 to 7,994 among taxis and 18,000 to 12, 805 for the general public, the police have failed.
Kanime added that at the current rate of over 300 defaulters per week, his team will be forced to employ stiffer mechanisms to bring them to book.
Kanime: “We earlier launched door to door, office to office and erected roadblocks to collect this revenue. But still this situation is far from being solved.
“To us it’s not about the monies they owe us. It’s about encouraging people to obey laws. We want an absence of crime in the community. Let them just obey the law.”
He expressed fears that if this situation is not contained, his office will not be able to sustain its operations.
Kanime’s revelations come in the wake of a taxi strike this week, where over 4,000 taxi drivers swamped Windhoek City Police’s Traffic Department, to vent their anger at the municipality’s demand that taxis should use permanent taxi signs instead of magnet signs that are easily removable.
They formed a blockade at Hosea Kutako Drive and Independence Avenue junction between 10h00 to 11h00, stopping taxis along the access roads, and dumping passengers. Special Field Force and the Police Reserve Force had to intervene.
Kanime and Namibia Bus and Taxi Association (NABTA) representative, Magnus Nangombe later convinced taxi operators to rather engage in further discussions instead of resorting to violence and chaos.
A meeting has been scheduled for August 17, to resolve the issue.
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