Minister of urban and rural development Erastus Uutoni says it is important that municipalities develop recreational parks in their areas.
He says Ondangwa, Ongwediva and Grootfontein have no recreational parks for residents to enjoy.
Dormant and absent economic development officers have led to municipalities in Namibia not making progress, he says.
The minister yesterday at a workshop on regional and local economic development policy said these officers are not active, despite being employed to do a specific job.
“When I visited a number of local authorities, I observed that some of your local economic development officers are not active,” he said.
Uutoni said only a few local authorities have active local economic development officers.
“Sometimes when you come to a local authority, you don’t even know who the local economic development officer is.
Who can help the management, the mayor, the chief executive, to plan on the issues concerning localities, economies?” the minister asked.
He said this is why some towns do not have parks.

Uutoni called out Ondangwa, Ongwediva and Grootfontein for their lack of parks for residents to enjoy.
“I can ask you, do you have parks where people can come and relax? And somebody will say, no, we have no money,” he said.
This is part of the municipality’s services to residents, he said.
Grootfontein mayor Talitha Namati-Garises yesterday said a recreational park at the town is in the works.
“We used to have one, but it was sold years ago. We are planning to get another one,” she said.
The minister said community officers should engage local businesses.
“You hardly hear that there was a meeting of those local businesses in your locality,” he said.
The ministry’s deputy director for regional and local development, Lahja Hipondoka, yesterday said policies are not implemented due to a lack of capacity and resources.
“We should ensure there are enough resources to implement this policy,” she said.
“We are trying to do it the right way, so that at least at the end of the term we would be able to measure how far we have gone with local economic development,” Hipondoka said.
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