Katutura accuses municipality of protecting RedForce

The Katutura Residents’ Committee has accused the City Windhoek of protecting debt collection agency RedForce.

Katutura Residents’ Committee spokesperson Shaun Gariseb says the city is trying to protect RedForce by deliberately not addressing recommendations brought forward by the committee to end its contract with the company.

He said this at a press conference at Katutura yesterday.

“The City of Windhoek is not honest about many things. They are misinterpreting their own laws and they are deliberately omitting certain things.

“All this because if they adopt everything (resolutions brought forward by the committee) there would be no need for RedForce,” Gariseb said.

He said the appointment of RedForce puts residents in an even more impoverished position because the they bear the cost of the company’s interest and collection fee.

Gariseb said the city is protecting RedForce despite the company’s appointment causing the public distress.

“There is a misconception that the appointment of RedForce is beneficial to the residents, and financially viable to the City of Windhoek,” he said.

The Katutura Residents’ Committee claims the city’s decision to appoint RedForce to collect outstanding debts has led to widespread dissatisfaction and financial distress among the community.

Speaking at the same event, Katutura Residents’ Committee chairperson Benestus Kandundu said the city fails to empathise with residents who are still trapped in the after-effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said the City of Windhoek complains of financial constraints but refuses to recognise that both the city and its residents faced immense losses during the pandemic.

Kandundu called on the city to revisit recommendations submitted by the committee on 27 June.

Residents of Okahandja and Katutura recently staged a mass demonstration in Windhoek against the municipality’s debt management process.

They demanded that their debts be written off and that the municipality get rid of debt collectors RedForce Debt Management.

City of Windhoek spokesperson Harold Akwenye says although the city sympathises with residents, it is protecting residents against debt accumulation.

“We protect the residents against their own defaulting, so go look for the money and come pay. If we leave it, it’s going to escalate,” he says.

Akwenye says pensioners’ accounts are not handed over to RedForce, and neither are they charged with interest on their accounts.

He says the city knows the individuals who “hide” behind pensioners to have their debts written off.

“Let me inform you, you and I who owe the city N$1 000, for instance, are the ones behind using pensioners so our accounts can be written off. That’s what they are trying to do. We know these individuals,” he says.

The Namibian has reached out to RedForce but is yet to receive a reply.

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