Denver Isaacs
7 May 2008
Windhoek — ACCUSATIONS by Regional Councillor Margaret Mensah-Williams that municipal officials are short-changing poorer communities in delivering services has ruffled feathers at the City of Windhoek.
The City, specifically the office of the Mayor, has issued a five-page response to her charges.
It accuses the councillor of focusing on making "impressive public statements" rather than doing her part to practically address the issues.
Mensah-Williams, who represents Khomasdal North, told a press conference last week that while communities called on her office to address these issues, she was being kept out of the loop by municipal officials.
She said they apparently felt that politicians should not interfere in administrative matters.
Mensah-Williams called the press conference to draw attention to the plight of residents of Otjomuise's Sewende Laan informal settlement.
She highlighted the lack of ablution facilities the long distances between homes and schools, and community members being bitten by snakes in these areas.
In its lengthy response, the City responded that toilets had been built in many of the informal settlements, but were vandalised before people could settle there.
It said it was working on fixing the toilets, but was hampered by the fact that spare parts were not readily available locally.
The municipality said it had been overwhelmed by the influx of people to Windhoek since Independence, which contributed to the continuous growth of Windhoek's informal settlements.
"It should be interesting to remember that at Independence in 1990, Windhoek had only 140 000 inhabitants.
After Independence, rural-urban influx to Windhoek of four per cent per annum has been experienced and currently Windhoek has about 300 000 inhabitants of whom between 20 and 30 per cent are living in the informal settlements," the City said.
This meant that informal settlements in Windhoek had been growing at a rate of 9,4 per cent a year, it said, making the provision of water and sanitation "a serious challenge".
"The problem of informal settlements in Windhoek is a matter that poses serious development challenges ...
from a service provision point of view.
This is because the communities living in these areas are the poorest and most vulnerable residents of Windhoek, and service delivery to them requires substantial subsidy or some form of direct assistance.
And yet, council (alone), despite adopted policy intervention in dealing with this matter, is not able to address this huge backlog," the municipality said.
It challenged Central and Regional Government to get involved, especially in making water available to these communities, which would help the municipality provide proper sanitation services.
"We all know that freedom of movement is a constitutional right of all citizens and guaranteed by the Supreme Law of the land.
Informal settlements, cities, towns and villages therefore are a national challenge, and all players in development must come on board to aggressively initiate, develop and fund projects that can develop towns and contribute towards personal and national economic growth, and further enhance the quality of life of all Namibians.
If this is left to cities alone, as is now the case in Windhoek, who is ducking responsibility?" the municipality stated.
It further urged residents complaining of snakes in their areas to contact the City of Windhoek's Emergency Services to deal with this, especially since snakes are protected species.
The five-page response also noted that the Ministry of Education had indicated that it wanted to acquire a site near the Otjomuise informal settlement, with the intention of building a school there.
"It should however be pointed out that the function of building schools or clinics has not been decentralised to local authorities," it said, adding that erven for schools, clinics and churches had been provided for in these areas.
Mensah-Williams was not available for comment yesterday.
She was said to be out of the country.
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