Windhoek
In order to keep Windhoek residents abreast of the latest development in the City of Windhoek Mayor Muesse Kazapua has suggested live broadcasting of city council meetings, or alternatively moving such meetings to the premises of the old textile and garment factory, Ramatex.
Kazapua said this after requests from residents to have council meetings either broadcast live or moved to a place near Katutura, to make it easy for the general public to attend.
According to the Local Authorities Act ‘every meeting of a local authority council shall be open to the public, except on any matter relating to the appointment, promotion, conditions of employment and discipline of any particular officer or employee of a local authority council’.
Also, the council by a majority of at least two-thirds of its councillors has the right to move that a certain meeting be closed from the public.
“Those are good initiatives and are part of decentralisation and can decentralise council meetings, because councillors are elected by the people to serve the people,” Kazapua explained. “We can also broadcast the meetings, depending on resources or financial implications, but those are all avenues that should be in place to bring services closer to the people.”
He promised that he would consult fellow City councilors on ways to take council meetings to the people.
He said the meetings could be held outside council chambers, “If there is proper hall, because these meetings need to be recorded and in some areas we might not have resources to hold meetings. If the money is there, it can be done. I welcome the discussion. It is high time for us to take council meetings to the communities.”
Live broadcasting on television would cost the council between N$60 000 to N$80 000, while recording the meeting and airing it later would cost N$140 per minute, officials at the national broadcaster, NBC, said yesterday.