Namibian drug mule arrested at OR Tambo highlights Namibia’s youth unemployment problem 

… suspected Namibian drug mule to appear in court

Political parties say the country’s high unemployment rate is forcing young people to commit crimes such as drug trafficking.

This comes after a Namibian woman (30) was arrested at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Sunday after more than 60 bullets of cocaine were discovered in her stomach.

South African police spokesperson brigadier Athlenda Mathe yesterday told The Namibian the woman is expected to appear in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court tomorrow.

Mathe said a medical examination has confirmed that all the drugs have been removed from the mule’s body.
“The estimated weight is 850g,” she said.

Mathe said the suspect faces a charge of dealing and possessing drugs and additional charges may be added at a later stage.

Mathe said the woman is the 10th drug mule to be arrested at the Johannesburg airport in the past two months.
She said the drug mule was travelling from Brazil.

“She was immediately arrested, taken to a local hospital where an X-ray confirmed and detected foreign objects in her stomach,” she said.

The suspect is currently in custody.

YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT BLAMED

Landless People’s Movement youth leader Duminga Ndala says many Namibian youths have turned to drugs due to the country’s high unemployment rate and poverty.

“It’s sad that young people are being pushed to illegal means of survival. The country needs to address the issue of the high unemployment and poverty rate among young people.

“This 30-year-old lady should have been working by now or schooling, but because there are no law reforms that cater for young people they get exposed to criminal activities. The policies need to change young people’s economic difficulties,” she says.

Ndala says young people are left with no choice but to indulge in criminal activity.

“This is why we are saying we need to call for economic reform,” she says.

“We don’t condone criminal activities, particularly being a drug dealer, because we know the effects they have on our society. Justice should take its course,” she says.

Popular Democratic Movement parliamentarian Inna Hengari says Namibian young people have become victims of drug-related cases because the country has failed them.

“We sympathise with them because they are young people who are desperate, who feel their country has failed them,” she said.

Hengari says becoming a drug dealer is the result of economic exclusion.

She says most Namibian young people are unemployed, which is why they do drugs.

“Young people are not economically active, meaning they do not have jobs and do not have opportunities, but it is also not an excuse for them to engage in such dealings,” she says.

Hengari says: “Sometimes as human beings we also do things and get involved in those criminal activities to lead a certain lifestyle we can maintain. People are really desperate and they don’t have jobs.

“We cannot deny there is also a personal responsibility on each individual to not get involved in criminal syndicates,” she says.

‘STOP DRUGS’

Namibian Police inspector general Joseph Shikongo has warned Namibian women against drug trafficking.
He says this has severe consequences.

The inspector general urges Namibian women to seek help and advice from social workers or the police before considering committing crime.

“I would like to advise Namibians to stay away from engaging in drugs because it is very dangerous,” Shikongo says.
He stresses the health risks associated with drug trafficking, especially when they are concealed in the body.

“If you look at the image of this woman, the drugs were inside her stomach and there were many. When she was arrested, she had reached 60 bullets,” Shikongo says.

HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF

In January a Namibian woman was arrested at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for suspected cocaine trafficking.

In March 2020, a Namibian man (31), was arrested at the OR Tambo International Airport after being found in possession of 4kg of cocaine.

The South African police at the time reported that the man was in transit from Dubai to Namibia. He was intercepted and cocaine was found in his luggage.

In April 2017, a Namibian woman was arrested at the same airport for the possession of cocaine worth N$2 million.

The Namibian in 2015 reported that at least 10 Namibian women were imprisoned in South Africa and Brazil for drug trafficking, then police spokesperson Edwin Kanguatjivi revealed.

He said these statistics are not surprising considering that foreign syndicates often lure desperate women with promises of luxury and instant riches.

In 2011, a Namibian woman was caught smuggling drugs into South Africa from India.

She was arrested after she flew into OR Tambo International Airport with 38kg of ephedrine and cocaine.

Namibian Sun reported in July 2014 that the woman had flown over 18 hours from India, where she had stayed about two weeks in August 2011, after being recruited by a Nigerian based in South Africa to carry the drugs.