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Claims of more rhino horns going missing from police hands


OFFICERS from the police’s protected resource unit at Oshakati are accusing other police officers of protecting their colleagues who are allegedly involved in the disappearance of two rhino horns from the unit.

These allegations come a few weeks after sergeant Salatiel Simon (45) from the protected resources unit in the Otjozondjupa region was arrested and charged with the theft of a rhino horn left in his care.

Earlier last month Otjozondjupa police spokesperson inspector Maureen Mbeha said six rhino horns were handed over to Simon for safekeeping between 30 September and 3 October.

“The sergeant allegedly only booked in five horns at the Otjiwarongo Police Station, and the sixth one was missing,” she said.

The police at the time said the missing horn weighs 12kg and has an estimated value of N$96 000.

Simon’s case was postponed to 24 January 2023 for further police investigations and he was remanded in custody.

Some of Simon’s colleagues at Oshakati last week told The Namibian a rhino horn went missing in the hands of their colleagues at Oshakati in September 2017.

Another one allegedly went missing while in the ‘strongroom’ (safe) at Oshakati, with no one being charged in connection with this yet.

“No report or case has been opened against those who had the horn. A case was only opened in 2020 after one of our colleagues reported it, but it has not been investigated,” an officer says.

According to the officers, the two officers from the protected resources unit brought the horn from Windhoek and booked it in at the Oshakati office in 2017.

The next day, the officers partook in an operation and allegedly gave the horn to a well-known actor in the north, the officers claim.

This was allegedly a set-up to trap members of the public who buy rhino horns.

The actor then allegedly went to sell the horn at Oshikango.

After the actor failed to secure a buyer at Oshikango, the undercover police officers allegedly brought him to Oshakati to sell it there.

One of the police officers was allegedly part of the sting operation.

The officers were then dropped off at a service station at Oshakati West while their colleagues monitored the situation.

The horn subsequently disappeared without a trace.

“Why did they not open a case? Why have they not been arrested like the officer at Otjiwarongo?” one of the officers asks.

The officers are also accusing their colleagues of stealing another rhino horn, which they allegedly seized from a suspect who carried it in his vehicle to Ondangwa.

They further claim that another rhino horn got lost in the police strongroom at Oshakati in 2018.

This horn was allegedly brought in from the Etosha National Park.

“A similar horn was found with one of our colleagues’ relatives at Rundu,” one of the officers says.

The head of protected resources unit at Oshakati, chief inspector George Namoloh, says he is not aware of any missing rhino horn.

The national head of the protected resources unit, deputy commissioner Barthlomeus de Klerk, two weeks ago said he was not aware of the matter as the protected resources division at Oshakati falls under the Oshana region’s headquarters.

“I am still waiting for feedback from the responsible person at the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism to check their records on any outstanding products given out.

“The responsible person was busy with inspection and will let me know by next week. From the records of my office no outstanding products have been recorded.

“I will let you know as soon as I get feedback from the ministry by next week,” De Klerk said on Monday.

Contacted for comment, police national spokesperson deputy commissioner Kauna Shikwambi referred The Namibian to the police’s head of criminal investigations, commissioner Moritz !Naruseb.

!Naruseb declined to comment on the matter.





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