Walvis Bay — Pressure is increasingly mounting on the Walvis Bay municipality to sever ties with debt collector RedForce, as some councillors have now joined the anti-RedForce brigade.
In a heated community meeting held last week, councillors Ephraim Shozi, Albertina Nkoshi, Paulus Kauhondwamwa, Ryan Gordon and Ronald Bramwell backed the community in their demand to remove RedForce.
Addressing the community, Shozi said they are working on terminating the contract with RedForce by the end of this month.
Shozi also announced he will table a motion in the coming weeks.
"RedForce is our enemy. I have no knowledge of how RedForce was appointed, yet I am your leader and should be accountable to you," Shozi told the community.
According to a document seen by New Era, the five are requesting the council chairperson, Richard Hoaeb, to convene a special meeting.
"The purpose of the meeting would be to discuss and adopt decisions regarding the underlying contract between the Municipality of Walvis Bay and RedForce debt management.
The special request stems from the recent community meeting held last week Wednesday to fast-track the outcome of the motion to be tabled before the ordinary council meeting on 30 April," the document reads.
According to the councillors, there is a crucial need to decide in the public interest and address the concerns of residents.
However, Walvis Bay mayor Trevino Forbes, councillors Richard Hoaeb, Saara Mutondoka, Leroy Victor and Olivia Andrews were absent at that meeting.
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Once again, residents aired their consternation with RedForce, the appointed debt collector on behalf of the municipality, despite there being a full-blown debt collection division within the municipality.
Owned by Julius Nyamazana, RedForce has so far managed to collect over N$1 billion of the N$1.5 billion owed to at least eight local authorities by ratepayers countrywide.
Residents last year owed the municipality N$384 million.
No consultations
On his part, Bramwell stated that the RedForce saga is unacceptable, and that the administration never consulted the council when they made the decision to appoint the debt collector.
According to him, when they came into the council, they found that the debt was very high and demanded that the administration work on collecting the outstanding debt.
"RedForce was appointed because we wanted the administration to work, as we can't build roads or provide basic services without money. They, themselves, appointed RedForce without consulting. They transferred every single account with one stroke on a computer to RedForce," Bramwell said.
He added that they should have informed residents they were going to appoint RedForce but they failed to do so.
Boycott
When contacted, Walvis Bay mayor Trevino Forbes told New Era they did not boycott the community meeting.
"We all share the same sentiments when it comes to RedForce. However, we need to make an informed decision and take into consideration the implications this might have for the municipality," Forbes said.
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