WINDHOEK – The Minister of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development, Major-General Charles Namoloh, has denied claims that his decision to suspend councillors at the Omaruru Municipality was politically motivated or biased.
“If you are wrong, you are wrong,” the minister said, emphasising that he is not biased towards anyone.
He said that if there were favouritism at play, he would not have suspended the whole council, as the majority were Swapo councillors.
But two suspended councillors of Omaruru, mayor Vincent Kahua and deputy mayor Albertus !Naruseb claimed that their suspension was political because the minister overlooked Okahandja Municipality where numerous allegations of corruption were levelled against some councillors since 2011.
The duo said that the team of investigators found it fit to suspend Omaruru councillors and added that it was also peculiar that Okahandja residents were demonstrating for the removal of their councillors while in Omaruru, the residents marched for the re-instatement of their councillors – wondering which council was more credible.
But Namoloh is adamant that there was no teamwork at Omaruru and the councillors were travelling at will and without approval.
“We also found dubious dealings there,” he added, saying that it did not mean that the other town councils would not be investigated, as forensic auditing was already ongoing.
He said that he could not push the forensic audit investigations. “Don’t think we will not work on them. We are not complacent. We don’t have too many (investigation) teams.”
Kahua and !Naruseb say that there have been no charges, no forensic report, no recommendations from the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) or response by Namoloh about their suspensions.
Namoloh yesterday revealed that the Rehoboth town council would be next on the investigation list in order to get to the bottom of allegations of dubious land deals.
“Some of these things are difficult to deal with, some are global while others are isolated,” the local government minister said, adding that they were busy investigating to find the source of the problem at Rehoboth.
However, Namoloh said that the situation of Rehoboth was controversial as some people feel that the town does not fall under the Namibian government’s jurisdiction.
Last year November, the seven suspended councillors of Omaruru together with their supporters took to the streets to defy the suspension, which emanated from alleged mismanagement of funds, self-enrichment and defying the minister’s several orders, including a ban on overseas trips.
Namoloh suspended the councillors without pay on December 16, 2013, after they allegedly failed to implement recommendations from his office.