Police at Keetmanshoop have arrested 12 suspected members of the notorious 'Host' gang that has been terrorizing the community there.
The ||Kharas Police Commander, Commissioner Marius Katamila, confirmed the arrests of the suspected gang members, aged between 17 and 23.
They are linked to robberies at knifepoint in the southern town.
Just over the weekend, nine criminal cases were registered against the suspects at the Keetmanshoop Police Station.
"First and foremost, I need to underscore that we are experiencing gang violence in the small community of Keetmanshoop; people are being terrorized and very important at the odd hours of the day, as you have rightfully put it, after the police have received numerous complaints over the weekend, even to the extent that some of these activities that involve people being harassed and being followed up, even up to the hospital after an incident of assault GBH, somebody was followed up to the hospital by these gang members. Yes, to put it in a nutshell, we are experiencing harassment of the large public of Keetmanshoop."
The suspected gang members, according to the commissioner, were threatening to target schoolchildren.
"There were schoolchildren who were threatened to the extent that they were even afraid to go back to school. For the period under review last weekend, there was a social media message going through that they were targeting the P.K. De Villiers School hostel, and the headmaster reached out to the colleagues, and we had to do some deployment of police officers and make regular patrols. We are also reinforcing patrols within the suburbs on an evening basis to make sure that we try to provide maximum security. But it's unfortunate that we cannot be at all the places at the same time."
The police have identified Nama Location, the YB Inn Club area, and |Gereres Informal Settlement as hotspot areas where the gang targets residents.
Commissioner Katamila assured the public that the police will continue to crack down on the suspected gangs.
He says the parents of the suspected gang members claimed their innocence following the arrest.
The police say it is not in their habit to go around and arrest innocent people.
The suspected gang members were expected to appear on charges of assault, housebreaking, robbery, assault by threatening, and malicious damage to property in the Keetmanshoop Magistrate's Court.