Omaruru residents demand answers

TROUBLE continues to haunt the municipality of Omaruru and its councillors.
Following an article in The Namibian last week about the high rate of resignations by its senior staff, a letter said to be from ‘concerned residents’ of the town has emerged, yet again demanding answers about the alleged abuse of municipal property.

Omaruru mayor Vincent Kahua has labelled the letter as ‘propaganda’. In the letter, the residents demand a meeting with the town councillors to answer to their ‘continued extravagant travelling even though you’ve depleted your S&T vote and misused of your entrusted positions’.The councillors are Albertus Naruseb of the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), Kretensia Garises, also of RDP, Christiaan Nanuseb of the United Democratic Front (UDF), Tuli Gebhardt of Swapo and Mayor Kahua of Nudo.The letter refers to the above councillors as ‘the cartel of five’.’We the concerned residents give you time until end April to host a meeting for us, the community, to air our grievances, failing in this regard, we shall call this meeting ourselves and a peaceful demonstration will follow thereafter,’ reads the letter.The letter also calls for the councillors to answer to the amount in petrol Kahua is said to have spent using a municipal petrol card while attending Independence celebrations in Mariental back in March. ‘You (Kahua) recently travelled to Keetmanshoop to attend the Newspaper Cup soccer tournament, as this joy-ride trip has no value to Omaruru,’ reads the letter. Meanwhile, Swapo’s Gebhardt charges that she has no knowledge of the letter as no such letter or grievances have ever been communicated to the mayor or the municipality.’I thought that when there’s a problem in the town, one would go to the right people to address it. To date, no letter has come to us communicating such grievances and we also have not received any petition. It seems the situation is only known to those writing the letter,’ said Gebhardt.Concurring with Gebhardt, Kahua also confirmed that although he was aware of letters being sent to the media by a ‘small group’ his office still had not received any such letters and no community members have come to his office with grievances. ‘I’m aware of the issues addressed in that letter and next week, the municipality will have a meeting where we will clarify all this misinformation and prove, based on documented evidence, that these allegations are false,’ he said.Kahua further said that there is a ‘clique’ consisting of disgruntled suspended municipal workers who are behind these letters. ‘Our office is open to the public and they are welcome to come to us so we can provide them with the facts. There is a way to govern and what is going on here is pure propaganda. I can assure you that out of the more than 15 000 residents living in Omaruru, those behind this letter cannot even be counted on one hand,’ he said.Kahua also outlined that in the meantime, the position for Head of Finance within the municipality, and that of administration officer had been filled. Interviews for the position of CEO were conducted yesterday. With consultation from the Ministry of Local Government and Housing, the suitable candidate will be notified next week.’At the end of this month, we are going to have a meeting where we will once again provide the community with the opportunity to air their grievances,’ said Kahua.Other councillors also said they were aware of letters being sent to the media by ‘so-called concerned citizens’ but no petitions or letters of grievances have ever been delivered to the council or municipality office. ‘I’m aware of the letters being sent to the media but no one ever came to us with a letter of grievances or a petition. No concerned resident has forwarded grievances to the council,’ said RDP’s Naruseb.