Swapo Youth League condemns Rundu water cuts

SWAPO Party Youth League (SPYL) central committee member Wensel Mavara has condemned a move by the Rundu Town Council to disconnect water to residents and businesses owing the council more than N$500.

Mavara said he regarded this action as a deliberate attempt by the council to sabotage the ruling party’s campaigns and to discourage voters from voting for the Swapo Party in the November regional and local authority elections.He told Nampa that opposition parties would capitalise on the disconnection of water to gain political points during their campaigns.’The disconnection of water is a deliberate attempt to cause confusion, and to allow the opposition to score political points,’ Mavara said.He questioned the council’s motive for disconnecting the water a few months before the elections, and not earlier.Mavara, who serves as the SPYL’s Rundu Urban secretary, said water was crucial to people’s lives and should not be cut off.’The town council should find better ways of recovering the money owed by the residents, instead of closing the water,’ he added.Approached for comment, the Rundu Town Council’s chief executive officer, Romanus Haironga, said the disconnection of water was a purely administrative decision and had nothing to do with politics.He said disconnecting water was a normal practice by town councils to get people to pay their water bills.He said the council would continue disconnecting water to residents who are in the red after the elections.Mavara also called on the town council to clear the bush around schools in Rundu because criminals hid there and attacked passers-by. – Nampa