THE Gobabis municipality retrenched 49 of its workforce at the end of last month after it offered them what it termed "voluntary retrenchment packages", an exercise that did not turn out as they expected.

According to sources at the cattle town, the council had a target to retrench about 80 workers. They had 166 employees.

"Since the voluntary retrenchment did not work, they [council] will go ahead to retrench others in order to make up the targeted number," said the source.

Gobabis Mayor Sila Bezuidenhout confirmed that 49 employees took the voluntary retrenchment packages. However, she could not provide more information, saying the town's chief executive officer, Ephraim Dawids, would be in a better position to comment.

Dawids declined to shed more light on their actions, pointing out that they, as a council will have to decide on what to respond to the media after their meeting.

Last year, The Namibian reported that the municipality planned to reduce costs and that one of its measures would be to ask workers to accept retrenchment.

Dawids, who described the exercise as a "voluntary exit scheme", said then that it was premature to give any figures.

"We did a business review looking at the services we provide and how we can improve," he said.

According to him, the review found that the municipality was overstaffed and spending more on salaries than on providing services to people.

The council had been in the news recently with reports of financial problems and huge debts.