PPRC and public jump in to restore police fleet

Sharlien Tjambari

Swakopmund’s Police Public Relations Committee (PPRC) is at the helm of getting Swakopmund’s fleet of police vehicles back on the road. In answering the recent call by Namibia’s Prosecutor, Martha Imalwa, that the public should assist the police wherever they can, the PPRC engaged businesses to donate tyres and other mechanical components to replace and repair police vehicles.

Thanks to this effort and the support received by the PPRC these police vehicles will be at work during the upcoming holiday season.
We have been informed of some vehicles of the police stations that are not functioning. Problems range from worn tyres to mechanical faults that effectively ground the vehicles. From the PPRC’s side we engaged with business owners, to assist us with contributions.
Added Anett Kötting, the Chairperson of PPRC: “The response we received were Abenteuer Africa Safari which sponsored four brand new tyres for the charge office vehicle of the Swakopmund police station (valued at N$5 240). Dunlop gave the PPRC a special price on the tyres and Greg’s Motor spares assisted in obtaining the vehicle parts needed for vehicles with mechanical breakdowns.
Elinor Dürr, Human Resource Manager at Abenteuer Africa Safari, said: “Abenteuer is committed to the community of Swakopmund. We firmly believe that we cannot be of any help to the greater community or our country if we are not first aware of the issues faced by our own town. We fully understand the financial plight and challenges that face our community and in this instance also the Namibian Police.
We can sleep safely and our children, and the children of our employees are kept safe because of our law enforcement system and the commitment shown to law enforcement through organisations such as the PPRC”.
Dürr pointed out the PPRC is operated on a voluntary basis by members of the Swakopmund community and as a thank you to these committed individuals and the Police for keeping Swakopmund safe, they support wherever possible.
Both Meike’s Guest House and Sandcastle Apartments sponsors monthly into the PPRC account. With these funds PPRC bought some razor wire that was urgently needed.
Kallisto Tours also donated N$1 000 with which PPRC have bought parts needed to fix another police vehicle. Both The Tug Restaurant and The Lighthouse Group have also donated N$1 500 each towards buying printing cartridge’s urgently needed at the main station.
Beach Lodge gave a donation of photocopy paper and examination paper for the police station. Hotel Zum Kaiser also donated a carton of photocopy paper.
“We have engaged with our banks and other business people to assist us and ask that they be in touch with me as we have a list of items that needs to be attended to. Tyres, vehicle spray painting etc. are just a few things still to be done”, explained Kötting.
Lynx Investigations have also recently donated a battery for one of the vehicles which was urgently needed to get the vehicle going.
Kötting concluded by saying the PPRC would like to thank all businesses who have assisted in any form or way to ensure PPRC can keep services going”.