Africa-Press – Namibia. GROOTFONTEIN chief executive officer Kisco Sinvula has threatened staff members who are allegedly sabotaging the municipality’s work with the “full wrath” of the council.
Sinvula at a media briefing at Grootfontein on Monday “warned the community to be vigilant against some staff members who have the objective to sabotage and suffocate the developmental agenda of the council”.
According to him, some staff members have been collaborating with “disgruntled and failed politicians who are now operating under the blanket of community activists”.
“We have empirical evidence on their dealings and planned schemes, and will leave no stone unturned to uproot them. Employees making themselves guilty to continue this wasteful collaboration of sabotage will face the full wrath of the council,” he said.
Sinvula said the municipality has since adopted a transformational leadership model that will ensure systems and process re-engineering for good corporate governance and management to enhance service delivery.
CORRUPTION REPORT As such, he said the strategic plan and performance management system will be put in place as a benchmark for accountability, efficiency, and effective delivery of public services.
At the same event, Sinvula also gave an update on the implementation of the recommendations of a 2019 report which revealed widespread maladministration, financial mismanagement, and corruption among council employees and former councillors at the town.
The report, which has been kept under wraps since it was finalised in 2019, revealed that some employees and councillors at the municipality have over the years been engaged in dubious land deals, and that plots were confiscated from owners and transferred to municipal workers.
The report further unmasked various schemes of municipal bosses paying themselves irregular housing and vehicle allowances without owning houses or vehicles.
The Ministry of Urban and Rural Development compiled the above-mentioned report after an investigation into the alleged maladministration and corruption was conducted from 11 to 29 March 2019. This report has been the subject of political squabbles at Grootfontein.
Sinvula said the recommendations of the report are being implemented gradually, and the municipality would “soon hand over all the relevant documentation to the applicable authorities for the legal process to take its course”.
“It is my duty to ensure that the recommendations and council resolutions are implemented. It is against this background that I am obliged to ensure that the alleged malpractices during the tenure of the previous administration are dealt with in a fair and transparent manner,” Sinvula said.
Grootfontein mayor Lovisa Iiyambo supported Sinvula’s claims of unruly employees at the municipality who were sabotaging the municipality’s work. She said some of these employees are implicated in the corruption report, and want to derail the municipality from implementing its recommendations.
“Some people who are implicated in the report went to open a case against the municipality, and are organising other workers to protest against the municipality. Some of them have taken study leave, but there is no proof of studies. Some are undermining their supervisors,” she said.
UPDATE ON LAND Sinvula gave an update on some activities he has implemented at the municipality, including initiatives to provide residents with land.
He said the council has designated more that 3 000 erven for ultra-low-income and low-income earners under the flexible land tenure system. This intervention will directly contribute to the eradication of shacks and deter land grabbing, he said.
“We have earmarked 760 plots at Omulunga Extension 8 and 9 for our ultra-low-income earners. In keeping with our caring attitude as a people’s municipality, we will soon embark on the construction of 100 social houses for the total eradication of the single quarters under the single quarters eradication programme,” he said.
Sinvula said the municipality has resolved to allocate 400 plots at Omulunga extensions 7 and 8, and Extension 3 at Luiperd Heuwel to uniformed personnel.
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