Africa-Press – Namibia. Urban and rural development minister James Sankwasa has threatened to withdraw all funds dedicated to service delivery of the City of Windhoek.
Sankwasa warns the municipality that if they cannot provide the plan on how they will execute service delivery to residents by the end of October, he will have no choice but to redirect such funds to other local authorities.
He said this in the National Assembly on Tuesday while responding to questions posed to him.
Popular Democratic Movement president McHenry Venaani raised concerns over the decision taken by Sankwasa earlier this month to slash the City of Windhoek’s N$750-million informal settlements upgrade allocation by N$255 million due to the municipality’s alleged non-cooperation and lethargy.
The funds were redirected to other local authorities.
The move followed an 18 August meeting chaired by Sankwasa, who recently said he had considered recalling city councillors over persistent non-performance.
“The ministry had a budget of N$750 million which was for sanitation, formalisation and water that was allocated to the City of Windhoek, and all the local authorities were given a priority to identify the land where this money is to be used and to come up with a plan of formalisation.
“To this day, when I’m standing in parliament here, the City of Windhoek has failed to come up with a plan. Hence I stand by my words. We will withdraw money from them and give to the local authorities that are heading the delivery of services,” he said.
Sankwasa threatened to redirect funds to other localities that are ready to execute services, saying he will not waste time while City of Windhoek councillors fight among themselves.
“There are other local authorities that are ready with their plans to execute services to the residents,” he said.
Sankwas said the City of Windhoek is not the only local authority that provides services to residents in the country.
Approached for comment, City of Windhoek mayor Ndeshihafela Larandja says “she was in a meeting and is unable to make any comments on Sankwasa at the moment”.
Informal settlement community leader Abner Mbango, in the Samora Machel constituency, says he supports Sankwasa’s move as they are fed up with the municipality for failing to address sanitation as well as their housing and water crises.
“I totally support him, as the community is tired. This municipality does not care about us at all. Let them face the music and we want Sankwasa to come and meet us to tell him what this councillor failed to do,” he says.
Mbango says the municipality has been turned into a money making machine that does not care about the plight of the citizens.
He wants Sankwasa to change the whole council.
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