Retire, Geingob tells veteran police officers

PRESIDENT Hage Geingob has urged veterans of the liberation war who are still serving police officers to go on retirement.

Geingob was speaking during a meeting with police inspector general Sebastian Ndeitunga and other high-ranking officers at State House on Wednesday.

The aim of the meeting was for the president to address the police force, and express gratitude on behalf of the Namibian people.

“We think we must be there permanently; it cannot be. We have done our part, we have to move on, and new ones have to come,” Geingob stressed.

He explained that the matter of retirement when compared with his role as president differs.

“I just talk in the offices, you [officers] have to run around [and] chase people. You must be healthy, and must be in good shape. I mentioned that you cannot be a police officer with a pot belly, and people were teasing me, saying they freed the country. We all freed the country,” Geingob said. He added that the time has come for veterans still on duty to bid farewell to service, while emphasising that they should be taken care of.

“Take care of them, but they should also go and rest,” he noted. Geingob urged the police’s top brass to desist from engaging in favouritism, ethnicity, nepotism, racism or other unethical reasons as a basis for promoting subordinates.

Ndeitunga agreed with the president, stating: “The force is ageing, and unfortunately in the force there is no room for you to say ‘I cannot go for retirement’. If you reach retirement age, you have to go,” he said.

Although Ndeitunga stressed that “it’s very scary” if the force does not embark on a recruitment drive to replace retiring officers, he assured Geingob that come 2020 and 2022, the majority of the senior officers will have retired.

“We have a plan of succession to ensure that there are no issues of leadership, but it is a concern if we do not have the resources to recruit.”

– Nampa