Denver Isaacs
29 April 2008
Windhoek — The Regional Councillor for the Khomasdal North Constituency in Windhoek, Margaret Mensah-Williams, this weekend spoke out strongly against officials at the City of Windhoek, whom she accused of ducking their responsibilities to poorer communities.
Mensah, speaking a press conference at the Sewende Laan informal settlement outside Otjomuise, said when it came to the poor, the municipality was often quick to take shortcuts that it wouldn't in more affluent areas.
A lack of ablution facilities, long distances between homes and schools, and community members being bitten by snakes were just some of the issues Mensah said were being dumped in her lap while she was kept out of the loop.
"These parents are poor and cannot pay for bus or taxi services, with the result that parents have to hunt for their small children at night because they get lost and can even be raped when taking into account the high rate of violence against women and children in our country," she said.
She said the situation sometimes became so bad that children were forced to drop out of school because of parents' fear for their children.
Referring to the lack of toilets in the informal settlements, Mensah-Williams said this made people vulnerable to attacks by criminals, and also increased the risk of polio and other diseases linked to hygiene.
"Furthermore, this community [Sewende Laan] is attacked by snakes and some were even hospitalised because of the bushes around, since the community now encroaches on the natural habitat of these dangerous animals," she said.
Quoting the National Housing Policy of 2000, Mensah said town planning and engineering design standards were meant to be coordinated and carefully applied in terms of location and layout so as to reduce development costs and to speed up service delivery.
"It seems this is only taken into account when townships are planned for the affluent members of our society and not the poor," she said.
She said her office had no way of helping people appealing to them for assistance.
"When we as politicians want to advise we are told we are politicians and should not interfere in administration.
However, we are not illiterate and signed a contract to serve all people from the day we were elected.
As regional councillors we are told that municipal officers are not accountable to us," she said.
She said she felt that there was a power game going on between local and regional authorities, rather than any cooperation.
"Are we not all accountable to the same people who elected us into positions? Or are we not accountable to the institutions we are working for the moment? Let us take the circumstances of this group of our population seriously and work as a team," she said.
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