Sparks fly over NamPower, City of Windhoek in NA

NATIONAL electricity provider NamPower and the City of Windhoek came under the hammer in the National Assembly this week.

Mines and Energy Minister Erkki Nghimtina accused NamPower of “robbing” people, while MPs had harsh words for the way the Windhoek Municipality deals with the poor and with pensioners. While the Minister often found himself groping in the dark on questions put to him about Namibia’s looming energy crisis, he did not pull his punches when it came to NamPower and transformers.”Honestly speaking, NamPower is robbing the people” Nghimtina charged.He was responding to angry questions from MPs over the sale of transformersfor farms.Various MPs had said that in order to get electricity on their farms, they were required to pay for the instalment of transformers from NamPower.However, when other farmers in surrounding areas wanted electricity installed, they shared the use of these transformers without being required to make any contribution to the payment of such transformers.”People are told to buy transformers and later you’re told its not yours.What I say is let the transformers then belong to NamPower, but reimburse those who paid for them solely,” the Minister responded.”I can’t say how they will do it, but I will push for something to be done.The power of parliament cannot be ignored by anyone in this country,” he said.During his ministry’s budget motivation on Monday, Nghimtina vowed to expand rural electrification, giving priority to areas which have been electrified but not yet energised.In response to that, Agriculture Minister Nickey Iyambo wanted to know how this would be done as not only the country’s major energy supplier, South Africa, but now also the envisioned saviour of the northern regions, Zambia, had declared energy shortages in their countries.”As I understand it, we were supposed to get 200 megawatts from Zambia to end this problem in the Caprivi Region.But now I understand that Zambia also needs 1 600 Megawatts, and by 2010 they’ll need 4 500 Megawatts.Would this not imply that, even this 200 Megawatts for Namibia would be difficult for them to supply?” Iyambo wanted to know.DTA MP McHenry Venaani asked the Minister why municipalities did not allow residents to switch from running current to prepaid meters if they had outstanding debts.He said this led to situations where pensioners and poor people were allowed to accrue municipal bills of up to N$10 000, before eventually being evicted from their homes in the name of debt collection.The City of Windhoek especially came under fire – not only for the practice of evicting owners, but also for recent revelations that that it had been overcharging residents for services.CoD MP Elma Dienda wanted to know whether this money would be credited to residents’ accounts, or whether the City would provide them with free services for the amount owed.”Yes, they did overcharge residents,” Nghimtina acknowledged.The City of Windhoek, he said, had initially wanted to challenge the Electricity Control Board (ECB) on its findings, but later acknowledged their fault.”The ECB told them what tariffs to use but they refused and used their own.But they’ll have to do something to fix it,” he said.While the Minister often found himself groping in the dark on questions put to him about Namibia’s looming energy crisis, he did not pull his punches when it came to NamPower and transformers.”Honestly speaking, NamPower is robbing the people” Nghimtina charged.He was responding to angry questions from MPs over the sale of transformersfor farms.Various MPs had said that in order to get electricity on their farms, they were required to pay for the instalment of transformers from NamPower.However, when other farmers in surrounding areas wanted electricity installed, they shared the use of these transformers without being required to make any contribution to the payment of such transformers.”People are told to buy transformers and later you’re told its not yours.What I say is let the transformers then belong to NamPower, but reimburse those who paid for them solely,” the Minister responded.”I can’t say how they will do it, but I will push for something to be done.The power of parliament cannot be ignored by anyone in this country,” he said.During his ministry’s budget motivation on Monday, Nghimtina vowed to expand rural electrification, giving priority to areas which have been electrified but not yet energised.In response to that, Agriculture Minister Nickey Iyambo wanted to know how this would be done as not only the country’s major energy supplier, South Africa, but now also the envisioned saviour of the northern regions, Zambia, had declared energy shortages in their countries.”As I understand it, we were supposed to get 200 megawatts from Zambia to end this problem in the Caprivi Region.But now I understand that Zambia also needs 1 600 Megawatts, and by 2010 they’ll need 4 500 Megawatts.Would this not imply that, even this 200 Megawatts for Namibia would be difficult for them to supply?” Iyambo wanted to know.DTA MP McHenry Venaani asked the Minister why municipalities did not allow residents to switch from running current to prepaid meters if they had outstanding debts.He said this led to situations where pensioners and poor people were allowed to accrue municipal bills of up to N$10 000, before eventually being evicted from their homes in the name of debt collection.The City of Windhoek especially came under fire – not only for the practice of evicting owners, but also for recent revelations that that it had been overcharging residents for services.CoD MP Elma Dienda wanted to know whether this money would be credited to residents’ accounts, or whether the City would provide them with free services for the amount owed.”Yes, they did overcharge residents,” Nghimtina acknowledged.The City of Windhoek, he said, had initially wanted to challenge the Electricity Control Board (ECB) on its findings, but later acknowledged their fault.”The ECB told them what tariffs to use but they refused and used their own.But they’ll have to do something to fix it,” he said.