Council scraps mayor’s penalty

KEETMANSHOOP mayor, Basil Brown, on Tuesday got his way by having a building fine against his name scrapped at a closed meeting of the Town Council.

Brown incurred the fine, of N$2 500, when he started construction on a building at the town last year without the plans having been approved by the Council. Scrapping Brown’s fine was proposed by Keetmanshoop’s management committee chairperson Moses Titus (DTA) and seconded by fellow management committee member Johannes Coleman (CoD). Motivating the scrapping of the fine, Titus passed the buck to a staffer in the municipality’s building plan department, Nimrod Swartz.According to Titus, Swartz had admitted giving Brown permission to start construction, although a building plan submitted by Brown had not been approved yet. Councillors Arnold Losper (CoD) and Finna Elago (Swapo) opposed the scrapping. Elago told The Namibian she recused herself from the discussion because she did not want to ‘entertain something that is irrelevant and which I do not favour’.’We councillors must set an example, but instead we entertain things that are favourable to us at the expense of the town’s residents,’ Elago said. Losper said he tried to counter the fine scrapping, but failed because of a lack of support from other councillors.’The councillors who remained in the chambers after Elago recused herself did not support my counter proposal,’ said Losper. ‘The bottom line is that it’s illegal to have the fine scrapped without valid reasons. The fact remains that the owner (Brown) started construction on a building without building plans having been approved,’ he added. The Namibian earlier reported that private builder Sarel du Toit, who was contracted by the Keetmanshoop Council to approve building plans, said Brown’s construction of a double storey building at the town was already underway when he received the plans for approval. Brown’s building plan has since been approved and the building completed.luqman@namibian.com.na