Rossmund hit by spate of burglaries

Several home owners at Rossmund expressed their deep concerns this week over a spate of burglaries in recent weeks which they say are leaving residents and their property at risk.
This week alone three burglaries occurred, all in the same manner as what has become a trend in recent weeks at the coast. The burglars remove the glass from aluminium window frames by first removing a cover on the outer part of the frame keeping the glass in place.
The Namibian Police recently contacted namib times and requested the newspaper warn home owners at the coast with homes with aluminium frames to take precautions. This in-cludes adding burglar bars or beams on their properties.
With regard to Rossmund, home owners consulted this week said they are increasingly fearing for their personal safety. The latest spate of burglaries alone was not the only wake up call, but also the tragic death last week of a Swakopmund resident days after he was shot in the head by burglars.
“We are sitting in a very difficult situation. There is the deepening crisis over whether Rossmund is a golf estate and whether it is an ordinary residential neighbourhood of Swakopmund.
Home owners who accept they are living in a golf estate feel, they need the premises to be fenced off properly, as the security gate at the entrance to Rossmund cannot stop criminals entering the area.
A spokesperson for the pressure group “Justice for Rossmund” says the situation is getting out of hand. “Given the recent death of a member of our community at the hand of a burglar we are now asking: “how long before a murder or other violent crime is committed against us at Rössmund?
“Justice for Rossmund” is a group of resident which organised themselves into a pressure group against the concept of a golf estate. Their main reason is the fact that a non-existent Section 21 company registration number was used more than a decade ago to register notarial deeds of imposition against properties sold at Rossmund. The pressure group charge the non existent Section 21 company registration number mislead people to believe they bought into a golf estate.
Criminal charges of fraud and theft under false pretense was laid against coastal lawyers Gerhard van der Merwe and Danie Malherbe and developer Wim van der Plas at the Nambibian Police over the matter. The matter is currently under investigation and a third coastal lawyer might be added to the list of suspects in the case.
The pressure group also bemoans the absence of the Namibian Police on regular patrols at Rossmund as well as the absence of traffic officers patrolling the streets to enforce traffic laws.