Caught in the municipal debt trap

WINDHOEK – Willem van Wyk relishes the opportunity to just sit on the porch of his modest home on Jasmyn Street in Khomasdal.

But the last few years haven’t been easy for this 82-year-old pensioner. His water and electricity were disconnected in February last year while he was confined to bed with illness.Van Wyk is a life-long asthma sufferer and over the last few years the sickness has affected his lungs and heart.”The doctors say they can’t do anything about his lungs anymore.They just gave him pills,” explains Joan Christiaans, who is Van Wyk’s 40-year-old unemployed daughter.She shares the house with Van Wyk, her three children, another sister and one of Van Wyk’s grandsons.Christiaans says:”My mother made sure that these things were paid, but when she died in September 2001, we kept on paying, but there wasn’t enough money so we couldn’t pay everything.”Then our water and electricity were disconnected last year and the Municipality gave us a paper saying we should go and make arrangements.”Willem van Wyk’s outstanding balance amounts to about N$7 000.Christiaans says that the Municipality wanted them to pay half the amount before the water could be reconnected, but they have never been able to raise that amount.”They didn’t consider him,” said Christiaans, referring to her father.”He was sick in bed.It was very unhygienic.There was no water so we couldn’t bath him and there was no water in the toilet.”In mid-August this year, an arrangement was made with the Municipality and Van Wyk’s water and electricity were reconnected.According to the arrangement, he has to pay N$150 of his N$300 pension to the Municipality every month.Not far away on Traugott Handura Street in Katutura, 83-year-old Imanuel Kahee and 68-year-old Adelheid Kahee, are not as fortunate.Imanuel Kahee is blind and bed-ridden.Both he and his wife are pensioners.Their electricity was disconnected in January this year and the water in July.The outstanding balance is also close to N$7 000.”They say we must come and pay N$3 000 to open the water, but we don’t have the money to pay that debt,” said Constancia Kahee, the couple’s eldest daughter who shares the house with her parents, younger brother and sister.”Life is very difficult.How can we live without water?” The house and account are registered in the name of an older son, Salomo Ndjoze, who is currently hospitalised because of a serious accident.Constancia Kahee says they went to the Municipality at the beginning of September to try and come to some sort of arrangement, but were told that because the account was in Ndjoze’s name, it was not possible to strike a deal.The Kahees are currently receiving water from their neighbours.”The people don’t want to help us anymore.They say we also have to pay their account,” said Constancia Kahee.”They said this month is the last time.I don’t know where we’ll get water now.”Johannes Hendricks of the Ada /Gui Senior Citizens and Destitute Children’s Association, who has been trying to help Willem van Wyk and the Kahees, said:”The Municipality expects people with low incomes to pay high costs.They don’t think of the man on the street.”The Municipality doesn’t try to find out what people earn.They just look at what they’re owed.They have nothing to do with people’s living standards.”Hendricks, himself a pensioner, says his organisation knows of “hundreds” of cases of elderly people living without water and electricity because of debts to the Municipality.”Where do they expect old people or unemployed people to get the money?” he asks.”What can these people do with a N$300 pension? What can you accomplish with this?” Hendricks says that when he tried to approach the Municipality on behalf of these elderly people, he was turned away.”Municipal officials are arrogant,” he said.”They become angry when you try to talk to them.People have nowhere to go and no-one wants to listen to them,” he adds.”People are not unwilling to pay,” he explains.”They are willing to pay.They understand they have to, but something has to be done to help the old people.”However, Ndangi Katoma, Chief of Corporate Communication, Marketing and Customer Care at the Windhoek City Council, says they try to accommodate the elderly where they can.”We do need to help our elders,” he said.”We install prepaid electricity meters free of charge, but they have to come to us to make some sort of arrangement.””We try to make sure that they have at least one of the services, mostly water, and irrespective of the amount that is owed,” he added.Katoma explains that the Local Authority Act does not make provision for services to be provided free of charge.”Services are provided at a cost and the service providers expect us to recover that cost,” he said.”Maybe government should institute [water and electricity] subsidies targeting the elderly.”However, Katoma states that all service users should make every effort to try and pay their service bills on time and in full to avoid disconnection.”Let’s all recognise the point that the culture of payment is crucial to development,” he says.Meanwhile, Willem van Wyk, speaking with a wheeze, blames himself for having allowed his debt to build up.”These are things I brought on myself because I didn’t give them attention,” he slowly says.”But I’m through the worst now.””I just want to live right,” he adds.”I just want to live like a human being.”- Nampa-Echoes News Service (Polytechnic)His water and electricity were disconnected in February last year while he was confined to bed with illness.Van Wyk is a life-long asthma sufferer and over the last few years the sickness has affected his lungs and heart.”The doctors say they can’t do anything about his lungs anymore.They just gave him pills,” explains Joan Christiaans, who is Van Wyk’s 40-year-old unemployed daughter.She shares the house with Van Wyk, her three children, another sister and one of Van Wyk’s grandsons.Christiaans says:”My mother made sure that these things were paid, but when she died in September 2001, we kept on paying, but there wasn’t enough money so we couldn’t pay everything.”Then our water and electricity were disconnected last year and the Municipality gave us a paper saying we should go and make arrangements.”Willem van Wyk’s outstanding balance amounts to about N$7 000.Christiaans says that the Municipality wanted them to pay half the amount before the water could be reconnected, but they have never been able to raise that amount.”They didn’t consider him,” said Christiaans, referring to her father.”He was sick in bed.It was very unhygienic.There was no water so we couldn’t bath him and there was no water in the toilet.”In mid-August this year, an arrangement was made with the Municipality and Van Wyk’s water and electricity were reconnected.According to the arrangement, he has to pay N$150 of his N$300 pension to the Municipality every month.Not far away on Traugott Handura Street in Katutura, 83-year-old Imanuel Kahee and 68-year-old Adelheid Kahee, are not as fortunate.Imanuel Kahee is blind and bed-ridden.Both he and his wife are pensioners.Their electricity was disconnected in January this year and the water in July.The outstanding balance is also close to N$7 000.”They say we must come and pay N$3 000 to open the water, but we don’t have the money to pay that debt,” said Constancia Kahee, the couple’s eldest daughter who shares the house with her parents, younger brother and sister.”Life is very difficult.How can we live without water?” The house and account are registered in the name of an older son, Salomo Ndjoze, who is currently hospitalised because of a serious accident.Constancia Kahee says they went to the Municipality at the beginning of September to try and come to some sort of arrangement, but were told that because the account was in Ndjoze’s name, it was not possible to strike a deal.The Kahees are currently receiving water from their neighbours.”The people don’t want to help us anymore.They say we also have to pay their account,” said Constancia Kahee.”They said this month is the last time.I don’t know where we’ll get water now.”Johannes Hendricks of the Ada /Gui Senior Citizens and Destitute Children’s Association, who has been trying to help Willem van Wyk and the Kahees, said:”The Municipality expects people with low incomes to pay high costs.They don’t think of the man on the street.”The Municipality doesn’t try to find out what people earn.They just look at what they’re owed.They have nothing to do with people’s living standards.”Hendricks, himself a pensioner, says his organisation knows of “hundreds” of cases of elderly people living without water and electricity because of debts to the Municipality.”Where do they expect old people or unemployed people to get the money?” he asks.”What can these people do with a N$300 pension? What can you accomplish with this?” Hendricks says that when he tried to approach the Municipality on behalf of these elderly people, he was turned away.”Municipal officials are arrogant,” he said.”They become angry when you try to talk to them.People have nowhere to go and no-one wants to listen to them,” he adds.”People are not unwilling to pay,” he explains.”They are willing to pay.They understand they have to, but something has to be done to help the old people.”However, Ndangi Katoma, Chief of Corporate Communication, Marketing and Customer Care at the Windhoek City Council, says they try to accommodate the elderly where they can.”We do need to help our elders,” he said.”We install prepaid electricity meters free of charge, but they have to come to us to make some sort of arrangement.””We try to make sure that they have at least one of the services, mostly water, and irrespective of the amount that is owed,” he added.Katoma explains that the Local Authority Act does not make provision for services to be provided free of charge.”Services are provided at a cost and the service providers expect us to recover that cost,” he said.”Maybe government should institute [water and electricity] subsidies targeting the elderly.”However, Katoma states that all service users should make every effort to try and pay their service bills on time and in full to avoid disconnection.”Let’s all recognise the point that the culture of payment is crucial to development,” he says.Meanwhile, Willem van Wyk, speaking with a wheeze, blames himself for having allowed his debt to build up.”These are things I brought on myself because I didn’t give them attention,” he slowly says.”But I’m through the worst now.””I just want to live right,” he adds.”I just want to live like a human being.”- Nampa-Echoes News Service (Polytechnic)