Councillors deny supporting City budget

CITY councillors of the DTA and the Congress of Democrats (CoD) have distanced themselves from the 2009-10 municipal budget and its implementation after the majority of the City Council last Thursday vetoed an opposition proposal to revisit and curb the City’s approved spending spree of millions.

Nico Smit of the DTA yesterday issued a statement to this effect, saying he believes the City Council ‘was acting contrary to the interests of the public’ in implementing the N$1,8 billion budget with its millions for entertainment and allowances, slashed community investment and hikes tariffs.Herbert Schultz of the CoD, when contacted by The Namibian, said he fully supported Smit’s statement.Adding their voices to the growing outcry against the municipal budget, the Public Service Union of Namibia (PSUN) and Namibia Consumer Trust also publicly condemned the City’s actions at the weekend.In addition, PSUN Secretary General Victor Kazonyati lashed out at Government’s ‘astounding silence’ on the matter.’Until now we have not heard as much as a pip from Government or at least the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development,’ he said in a statement on Friday.Although lauding the looming interdict application by the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW), backed by the Namibian Employers Federation (NEF), Kazonyati said the intended court action is not ‘adequate and appropriate response to the economic onslaught perpetrated by the Windhoek Municipality against its tenants.’This is an issue over which the tripartite partners – Government, employers and employees – joined by the entire civil society must unite and work out a practical strategy to either force the Windhoek Municipality to drop the tariffs or face stiff reciprocal action,’ Kazonyati said.Government could cut certain funding of capital projects for the City, municipal workers could threaten industrial action, while the business community and civil society could stall paying certain rates and services, he suggested.’We think that such is the only action the Windhoek Municipality will respond to,’ Kazonyati said.The Namibia Consumer Trust (NCT) accused the City of breaching Articles 95 and 98 of the Namibian Constitution if they implement the budget unchanged, not promoting the welfare of the people and not adhering to the principles of economic order.Scraping or significantly reducing many, if not most, of the City’s unnecessary spending could go a long way ‘to enhancing the quality of life of all the residents’ as the municipality undertakes in its vision, Michael Gaweseb of the NCT said.’This would aid less or no tariff increases,’ he said in a statement yesterday.Distancing himself from the controversy, Smit said the City Council met during April and May to discuss and workshop the budget for 2009-10. Here it was agreed that water and electricity tariffs would be raised in line with the increases from NamPower and NamWater.’During the discussion and workshop sessions, I repeatedly voiced concern and stated my opposition to certain issues, most notably the entertainment section of the budget, as well as other areas including certain expenditures which I felt were not strictly necessary, especially considering the current economic situation,’ he said.’However, despite my calls to revise the budget, it was accepted by Council.’A massive outcry erupted following media reports, ‘not only of the budget, but of Council itself’, Smit said.’As council members, we are publicly-elected office bearers and therefore must always allow the interests of those who elected us to office to guide our decision-making and our actions,’ he continued.The current uproar, according to Smit, is ‘a clear indication that the interests of the public have been largely disregarded and to some extend even ignored in the Council’s decision-making and action with regards to the budget’.Making a mistake is human, but when one is made and pointed out by the public the Council represents, ‘then it is the duty of those publicly-elected officials to rectify the said mistake and to do so with responsibility’, he said.Smit wrote a letter to Windhoek Mayor Matheus Shikongo last Tuesday, asking for an urgent meeting to discuss the reaction to the budget and to review the budget. The meeting took place on Wednesday and Thursday, where the majority of the Council voted not to review the budget, ‘this after Council had already come under siege from a barrage of criticism regarding the budget’, Smit said.jo-mare@namibian.com.na