Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Rundu Town Council says claims to an ancestral piece of land on which a borrow pit has been set up is delaying a project to rehabilitate roads at the town.
In a statement issued by the office of Rundu chief executive officer (CEO) Olavi Nathanael on Wednesday, the council said it appointed a contractor in November last year, and officially handed the site over to the contractor earlier this month.
The project could, however, not commence due to a lack of material.
According to the statement, the council has been faced with challenges to extract gravel since 2014.
This was allegedly after a group called the Kavagara Agricultural Project, comprising mostly Kaisosi residents, invaded a portion of land on which the council wanted to mine gravel, claiming it is their ancestral land.
“This issue was reported to the political leadership of the town for their intervention, but there have been no results on the matter.
“They only allowed WFA Construction CC to extract materials, because they were paid in cash,” the council said.
WFA Construction CC is a private company mining gravel at the borrow pit.
The council said the company will not be able to go ahead with road maintenance without a borrow pit to extract gravel from.
“This is sabotaging the development of the town, and will delay the implementation of the allocated fund,” the council stated.
Rundu Town Council was allocated a total of N$5,5 million by the Road Fund Administration to maintain roads.
It said up to date, a total of N$2,4 million has been used to this end.
“If the issue of the borrow pit is not resolved soon, the Rundu Town Council will have trouble with road maintenance and upgrades. This is nothing but the community discrediting the efforts of the council to bring about development to the town for the benefit of all,” the council said.
The chairperson of the Kavagara Agricultural Project, Maria Kaundu, yesterday said the town council only approached them at the beginning of this month to ask for permission to mine gravel.
“The only time they came here was recently this month when they asked us if they could extract gravel from the pit, that’s all. They didn’t talk about the town or any other details,” he said.
Kaundu denied knowledge of an agreement with a private developer.
Efforts to get WFA Construction CC’s contact details were not fruitful.
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