Rehoboth's people demand answers Line minister threatens to dissolve council JEMIMA BEUKES The Rehoboth town council is under fire from its residents as well as the minister of urban and rural development after its operations apparently ground to a halt.
Rehoboth residents yesterday locked the gates of the Rehoboth town council in protest against alleged poor service delivery.
This followed a day after the council was allegedly read the riot act by minister of urban and rural development Sophia Shaningwa, who threatened to dissolve the council if the state of affairs continued.
According to United People’s Party (UPM) councillor Lennie Pienaar the minister expressed grave concern over the lack of services at the town and the fact that council operations had come to a standstill.
The community yesterday handed over a petition calling for the immediate removal of all council members for allegedly failing to execute their duties.
In a petition addressed to Shaningwa, the community asked why the council’s human resources manager, Willie Swartz, was not being investigated by the Anti-Corruption Commission for the N$13 million from land sales that was allegedly paid into his personal account.
The petition also called for a forensic audit of the Build Together Programme, the council’s payroll in order to get rid of ghost employees, as well as water meter readings and payment of water accounts.
The community was especially aggrieved over the deplorable state of the town’s gravel and tar roads despite the fact that the council receives a N$2.2 million government subsidy for road maintenance from the Road Fund Administration.
The community complained that the town’s sewers have been overflowing for months while some residential areas do not even have sewer lines.
“We are in arrears of N$37 million with NamWater despite paying our water bills timeously. We have also learnt with great concern that we owe NamPower N$11 million despite the fact that we have a pre-paid electric system,” the petition reads.
The community also demanded that the council explain why the water supply to social housing units for people living with disabilities was disconnected.
Action
Council CEO Christophe //Uirab confirmed the meeting with the minister and said the council expected to receive a report with a number of recommendations from the minister, stipulating how the town’s affairs should be brought to order.
“I also told the community that I am not sure what the report contains and what the minister recommends but we will definitely implement every recommendation,” he said.
Report
A report //Uirab had submitted to the minister recently, in which he called for a forensic audit to be conducted at the council, exposed a host of financial and administrative irregularities.
In the report //Uirab pleaded with the minister to recall all town councillors and to appoint someone to carry out their duties.
“The conduct of council meetings takes place in a fashion of personal attacks, infighting among councillors violently and in a manner of victimisation of staff present. Honourable minister, in some instances councillors had to stand on their feet ready to fight only to be calmed by others,” the report read.
//Uirab added that council meetings had become “a place of conniving aimed at instigating suspension of employees”.
He accused Rehoboth Urban East councillor Edward Wambo (Swapo) of political interference in the administrative functions of the municipality.
According to //Uirab the recruitment of operatonal staff has been politically motivated for the last ten years.
“With the recent advertisements of vacant positions, councillor Wambo indicates who to be appointed and as a result of internal conflicts these positions are still vacant as his demands will cause my office to undertake recruitment processes outside framework of personnel rules,” read the report.
//Uirab accused Wambo of submitting names to Swartz, who went ahead and appointed 12 casual workers without the authorisation of the CEO.