Africa-Press – Namibia. THE City of Windhoek has agreed to donate redundant vehicles to the Namibia Correctional Service (NSC) and the Maltahöhe Village Council to transport staff to work.
According to this month’s city council documents, the NCS has requested the City of Windhoek to donate them four surplus buses, while Maltahöhe has requested a tipper truck and sedan.
According to Raphael Hamunyela, the commissioner general of the NCS, the buses will be used to transport correctional service staff members at Evaristus Shikongo Correctional Facility at Tsumeb, Elizabeth Nepemba Correctional Facility at Divundu, and at Oluno Correctional Facility at Ondangwa.
“The safety of these officers is often at risk, especially when they are booked for night or early morning shifts and have to utilise other means of transport or walk,” Hamunyela says in a letter addressed to the City of Windhoek.
The extra buses would be repaired by the NCS’ industrial workshops and at its own cost, he says.
Council documents show the bus identified for donation is 43 years old and is not roadworthy, while the truck and sedan to be donated to the Maltahöhe Village Council are 30 and eight years old, respectively.
The donation is subject to ministerial approval.
In her request, Maltahöhe Village Council chairperson Hannah Swartbooi asks for the Windhoek municipality to donate a tipper or smaller truck for the removal of solid waste and household refuse.
“Currently, all our vehicles are down. We thus request for a bakkie and a sedan for the transportation of staff and councillors to official duties,” she writes.
Hamunyela yesterday said he has not received any response from the City of Windhoek.
Asked whether the NCS cannot afford to buy new buses, Hamunyela said: “I don’t think you, as a Namibian in Namibia, can ask the correctional service that question. It’s probably a question you should ask the executive director or the minister of finance.”
Swartbooi declined to comment on the matter.
Maltahöhe chief executive officer Gerson Tjitaura, however, yesterday said the village council has five vehicles, a firefighting truck, a Nissan pickup, a maintenance vehicle, and a sewage truck.
“We have made budgetary provision to procure a truck in the next financial year. However, I should say the City of Windhoek has promised in a letter they would give two vehicles, a sedan car for the local movement of the councillors, and for the staff as well. They also promised they would give us a truck,” he said.
Tjitaura said he went to inspect the vehicles the city plans to donate, adding they are in good condition.
“We, as the village council, have decided that our primary focus is to provide services to the people, which is water, electricity and accommodation, so we have decided to put the little resources we have into the primary functions of the local authority.
“However, for the maintenance thereof we need vehicles,” he said
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