Businessman Erastus ‘Chicco’ Shapumba on Wednesday rushed to settle his debt with the Oshakati Town Council after water supply to Natis Oshakati was disconnected on Tuesday.
Shapumba failed to settle an outstanding municipal account, which led to the offices of the Namibian Traffic Information System (Natis) at Oshakati going without water for two days.
The property is located at Erf 1615 on the main road next to Santorini fuel station.
The disconnection came a week after the Oshakati Town Council announced it would begin cutting water supply to government institutions and businesses with overdue municipal accounts.
A council source this week told The Namibian Shapumba’s municipal account was N$59 000 in arrears.
“The disconnection took place yesterday [on Tuesday] following the notice that was sent out,” the source said.
After the water was cut, Natis officials approached the council asking for the supply to be restored, saying they were tenants and not responsible for the outstanding municipal account.
The council maintained that the registered account holder had to settle the debt before the service could be reconnected.
This is not the first time the building’s water has been disconnected due to unpaid municipal bills.
The source said Shapumba had previously approached the council to have water supply reconnected after failing to settle his debt.
On Wednesday, he rushed to paid N$30 000 towards the debt. This reduced the outstanding balance to N$29 000.
Roads Authority spokesperson Hileni Fillemon yesterday said the building’s water supply was disconnected because of the landlord’s unpaid municipal account and not because of any fault on the part of the Roads Authority, which rents the building for its Natis offices.
“The person responsible for the building paid and the water was reconnected yesterday [Wednesday],” she said.
Fillemon said the Roads Authority’s rental payments are up to date.
SETTLE OR SUFFER
Last week, the council gave businesses and government institutions until 25 July to settle their accounts in full or enter into written payment arrangements to avoid disconnection.
In March, the council revealed that a significant portion of its outstanding municipal debt had remained unpaid for more than a year.
Oshakati mayor Leonard Hango this week said the council is enforcing the policy against all account holders in arrears and is not targeting any specific institution.
“I’m not fully updated with regards to Natis, but we are not targeting one institution. We are targeting all institutions that owe the council.
“But each one who owes us, we shall cut them,” he told The Namibian.
Hango said the council has to recover outstanding revenue to continue providing services.
“Because we are providing service, we need to recoup. People want to receive everything for free and that cannot sustain our institution, unfortunately,” he said.
Hango said residents, businesses and government institutions all have a responsibility to pay for the services they receive.
“So everybody should do their part. If we strive to provide decent service to our residents, they should pay for the services they are receiving,” he said.
Politician Nghipudilo ya Shiindi says municipalities should apply debt collection measures equally to all property owners, regardless of their political affiliation or social standing.
She says councils should hold property owners accountable because they are the registered account holders – not the tenants occupying the buildings.
She says no property owner should receive preferential treatment because of political connections.
“They tend to help each other, and then the business people end up getting away with it. Namibia is not an animal farm where some animals are more equal than others. We ought to be Namibians before anything else, before our political affiliations,” Ya Shiindi says.
She says she has seen similar situations while serving as a councillor, where the services of residents with relatively small municipal debts were disconnected, while some businesses with much larger outstanding accounts continued receiving services.
Shapumba did not respond to a request for comment by the time of going to print.
