Lights go out at Karibib

ONE of the troubled towns in Erongo, Karibib, was without electricity yesterday.

While many people thought it was a threatened NamPower cut that had materialised, the Municipality blamed it on a technical problem of burned out cables. The suburb of Usab apparently had power.Karibib CEO, Lourens Hoeseb, could not be reached yesterday as he was tied up in an urgent meeting.Speaking to The Namibian on Wednesday, he denied that NamPower had set a deadline for payments to be made, as had happened at Usakos.Both Usakos and Karibib are trying to clear outstanding debts with NamPower and NamWater.Hoeseb said discussions with both the utilities were ongoing.”Our focus at the moment is on technical problems – what went wrong and where in terms of finance and administration.”In response to the findings of the Auditor General that the Karibib Council had ended the last financial year N$4,3 million in the red, Hoeseb said a lot had changed since then.”It will take time to implement changes, but we have started cutting on different expenses.”He mentioned the examples of telephone extensions that were changed to only incoming lines, a reduction on overtime and the maintenance of vehicles and other small areas.He said travel expenses to workshops and events had been drastically reduced.The CEO acknowledged though that the water and electricity debts were the heavy issues – “the burden on our shoulders”.He stressed that non-payment of accounts would still result in a cut in services.”We plan to organise communication sessions with residents to explain to them why they need to pay for services.Many people still do not understand how the Municipality functions.”The suburb of Usab apparently had power.Karibib CEO, Lourens Hoeseb, could not be reached yesterday as he was tied up in an urgent meeting.Speaking to The Namibian on Wednesday, he denied that NamPower had set a deadline for payments to be made, as had happened at Usakos.Both Usakos and Karibib are trying to clear outstanding debts with NamPower and NamWater.Hoeseb said discussions with both the utilities were ongoing.”Our focus at the moment is on technical problems – what went wrong and where in terms of finance and administration.”In response to the findings of the Auditor General that the Karibib Council had ended the last financial year N$4,3 million in the red, Hoeseb said a lot had changed since then.”It will take time to implement changes, but we have started cutting on different expenses.”He mentioned the examples of telephone extensions that were changed to only incoming lines, a reduction on overtime and the maintenance of vehicles and other small areas.He said travel expenses to workshops and events had been drastically reduced.The CEO acknowledged though that the water and electricity debts were the heavy issues – “the burden on our shoulders”.He stressed that non-payment of accounts would still result in a cut in services.”We plan to organise communication sessions with residents to explain to them why they need to pay for services.Many people still do not understand how the Municipality functions.”