Police tourism protection sub-division pleased with progress 

By: Victoria Ashipala

Police head of the tourism protection sub-division, Chief Inspector Christina van Dunem daFonsech-Shikongo, says she is satisfied with the progress achieved since the establishment of the unit four months ago.  

She says a total of 205 tourism-related cases have been opened between February last year and June this year, of which 162 cases were finalised.  

Out of the cases, 148 were opened before the unit’s establishment, while 57 were opened afterwards, indicating a decrease in reported cases.

She said the police have arrested 20 suspects and finalised 36 cases, while eight suspects remain in custody. She stated that 11 suspects have been released on bail with one suspect has been found guilty.

Although Da-Fonsech-Shikongo commended the progress, she said the sub-division is facing several challenges, including limited members and some tourists not listening to police instructions, among others.

She added that the subdivision has only 16 members, despite the city having 58 identified hotspots.  

Da-Fonsech-Shikongo said language barrier is another issue they face, as some tourists do not understand or speak English fluently.  

“On the challenges we have more language barrier because most of the tourists come from different you know areas; I mean countries and now communicating with them it’s a challenge. We are talking about 58 hotspots while we have about 16 members who are not really enough to cover all the hotspots in the region itself,” she explained.

According to the chief inspector, theft out of motor vehicles remains the highest crime against tourists followed by theft and robbery.

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