WINDHOEK: A prominent Windhoek-based businessman has been arrested by the Namibian Police Force NamPol)’s Serious Crime Unit after he was allegedly found in possession of a suspected stolen vehicle yesterday.
The local businessman, whose name cannot be made public as he is yet to appear before court, was arrested yesterday morning after a Toyota Land Cruiser worth about N.dollars 500 000 which had been reported as stolen, was found hidden at a house in Windhoek’s Otjomuise residential area.
NamPol’s Crime Investigations Co-ordinator for the Khomas Region, Deputy Commissioner Sylvanus Nghishidimbwa confirmed the recovery of the vehicle and the arrest of the businessman to Nampa yesterday afternoon.
The recovered vehicle was allegedly stolen in Karirib in the early hours of Tuesday, only to be found in Windhoek yesterday morning.
The vehicle was easily recovered because it was fixed with a car tracking system, said Nghishidimbwa.
The deputy commissioner stated that another suspected car thief, who is free on bail on a different charge of car theft, is also said to be involved in the alleged theft of this car.
Omaheke Regional Education Director Nathalia Goagoses has urged parents in the region not to give indigenous home languages the cold shoulder in favour of English when choosing a medium of instruction at lower-primary school level.
Goagoses told Nampa yesterday that some parents force English as a medium of instruction onto their children in lower-primary Grades 1 to 4), which often places huge learning burdens on the child.
She said the importance of local languages as a medium of instruction for children starting school cannot be over-emphasised, adding that the Ministry of Education has been encouraging the teaching of learners at that age in their mother-tongue as it provides an easier and firm basis for their studies during later years.
A United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEFreport titled ‘Improving Quality and Equity in Education in Namibia: a Trend and Gap Analysis’ released in 2011 found that a vast majority of San learners and most ruGciriku-speaking learners are not being catered for in terms of home language as a medium of instruction at lower-primary levels.
According to the report, the situation is a direct result of a lack of will to implement the national language policy, and a lack of means to do so.
Schools in the Omaheke Region offer Afrikaans, Otjiherero, Oshindonga, Setswana and Khoe-khoegowab as home languages that can serve as medium of instruction for lower primary.