Erongo governor Neville Andre on Wednesday met with church leaders and community members at Walvis Bay to discuss the impact of crime at the town.
He said crime is destroying the community.
"The stories are heartbreaking. Crime represents the pain and suffering of our community and is a threat to our economy.
"Walvis Bay is the country's economic hub, but the growing crime rate is a threat to investors.
"Why can we not walk from one house to the other at night like we used to? Let us be each other's protectors. The community must take ownership to free our town from crime," Andre said.
Erongo police commander Nikolaus Kupembona shared that the top five prevalent crimes observed were housebreaking, robberies, assault, domestic violence and drugs.
Possible contributing factors are unemployment, poverty, alcohol and drug abuse, greediness, liquor outlets in residential areas and a lack of proper parenting.
"Do not look at adults only as possible criminals. Nowadays, you will find young children from nine and some school-leavers grabbing phones and bags. These are small children. It is worrying," he said.
The police have also achieved some success, Kupembona said, including confiscating drugs worth N$385 777 from January to July 2023, with 151 people arrested.
This year, drugs to the value of about N$2,1 million were confiscated, with 134 people arrested.
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"I want to thank peace-loving Namibians for giving us information, but still urge them to come and report crimes. Come on board, so we can fight crime.
"Our leaders, like the governor, are trying . . . We must work with our leaders, " he said.
Erongo education director Ernfriede Stephanus said schools are battling cases of misconduct and crime.
"Teachers do not have time to teach any more, and principals are dealing with misconduct cases.
"The entire community must interact positively with children who need to grow up in a safe and healthy environment. We are there because our mandate says we should educate our pupils for tomorrow, but we cannot do that alone. "We need to collectively address these issues," she said.
Coastal Drug Awareness Campaign member Martella Diederiks urged parents to pay attention to how they raise their children.
"We are responsible for the situation as it is. We need to start having time for our children. Children crave time.
"We wait for the governor to do things and we pray, but we firstly need to do it ourselves. There is no easy way out," she said.
A follow-up meeting will be held in December.
