SELCo wants to recover debt from Keetmans council

THE Southern Electricity Company (SELCo) plans to take legal action against the Keetmanshoop Town Council over a debt of N$1,7 million.

At a council meeting held on Tuesday, the town’s Chief Executive Officer, Paul Vleermuis, informed councillors that SELCo had revealed plans to take legal action against the Town Council in March.
According to Vleermuis, the revelation was made during informal discussions that SELCo’s Managing Director, Chris Bosch, and Operations Director, Abraham Kukuri, had with some councillors two weeks ago at Keetmanshoop.
Vleermuis said the informal discussions between Town Council and SELCo was aimed at salvaging the broken relations between the two parties and exploring how both parties could gain from potential electricity developments.
It is believed that the Town Council owes SELCo the money as part of a 15-year agreement on power supply that the parties entered into in 2001.
Currently the parties are embroiled in a legal battle after Town Council unilaterally terminated the power deal towards the end of 2004.
Council chairman, Simon Petrus Tiboth, hinted at Tuesday’s meeting that SELCo had indicated that it might not proceed with the debt recovery if the Town Council is prepared to settle the case over the management contract.
The majority of the councillors preferred the settlement option, and the council resolved to meet with SELCo to negotiate a better partnership agreement.
Councillor Basil Brown argued that the Town Council is getting a raw deal from SELCo despite having invested close to N$3 million in expansion projects.
“The time is now better than ever to get a better deal from SELCo…” Brown remarked.