City of Windhoek to freeze 300 vacancies for year

THREE hundred vacancies would remain unfilled at the City of Windhoek for the 2005-06 financial year, Councillor Bjorn von Finckenstein told the monthly council meeting on Thursday night.

Von Finckenstein said this was to curb costs and improve productivity. “The City of Windhoek will not fill the positions unless there is a strong motivation for them to be filled,” the Swapo councillor said.The Municipality employs 1 460 people.It has 714 vacancies, which include 400 vacancies for the City Police.Filling these vacancies would cost the ratepayer N$276 million a year, Von Finckenstein said.Councillor Ilme Schneider of the DTA proposed that a telephone code system be introduced to control the abuse of telephones at the Municipality.The Municipality’s telephone expenditure for 2004-05 was N$2,1 million.For the 2005-06 financial year, the City has budgeted for a phone bill of N$1,5 million.Von Finckenstein said the telephone use system would be reviewed and a cheaper method would be found to limit expenditure.* Councillors have proposed a new policy on naming and renaming of streets.This had been necessitated by an influx of applications from individuals and organisations to rename streets in particular areas with which that person or organisation was familiar, the monthly Council report stated.The proposed guidelines suggest that the names of people who are still alive should be excluded, including councillors or politicians, except when the age of the proposed person exceeded 70 years.- Nampa”The City of Windhoek will not fill the positions unless there is a strong motivation for them to be filled,” the Swapo councillor said.The Municipality employs 1 460 people.It has 714 vacancies, which include 400 vacancies for the City Police.Filling these vacancies would cost the ratepayer N$276 million a year, Von Finckenstein said.Councillor Ilme Schneider of the DTA proposed that a telephone code system be introduced to control the abuse of telephones at the Municipality.The Municipality’s telephone expenditure for 2004-05 was N$2,1 million.For the 2005-06 financial year, the City has budgeted for a phone bill of N$1,5 million.Von Finckenstein said the telephone use system would be reviewed and a cheaper method would be found to limit expenditure.* Councillors have proposed a new policy on naming and renaming of streets.This had been necessitated by an influx of applications from individuals and organisations to rename streets in particular areas with which that person or organisation was familiar, the monthly Council report stated.The proposed guidelines suggest that the names of people who are still alive should be excluded, including councillors or politicians, except when the age of the proposed person exceeded 70 years.- Nampa