WINDHOEK – The failure by the Bethanie Village councillors to turn up for a meeting with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs left a bitter taste in the mouths of some committee members, who consider the no-show a sign of disrespect for the law and a serious offence.
The committee was in the //Karas Region on a fact finding mission last week, during which it expressed dissatisfaction with the pace of implementing development projects in the region by administrators. Meanwhile, village councillors told New Era that the non-show was not out of disrespect or an outright refusal, but because one councillor had a runny tummy, another a problem finding transportation and yet another councillor had a prior engagement at a church, while two other senior village officials were attending a workshop
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs had scheduled meetings with various local and village councillors. The Bethanie Village councillors did not show up for the meeting, something that did not go down well with the leader of the opposition Congress of Democrats, Ben Ulenga, one of the parliamentarians on the committee, apparently because the council sent a note to say there is nothing to discuss.
“The refusal of councillors to attend such meetings with a parliamentary standing committee is an offence. It is a law that they must respect. Not even a minister can refuse an audience with a parliamentary standing committee and that is the same with local authority councillors. You cannot just stay away and send someone to tell us that there is nothing to discuss, because there is nothing on the ground,” Ulenga said in one of the briefing meetings in the presence of committee chairman and Swapo Party MP Elifas Dingara.
Councillor Edward Wells, chairperson of the Bethanie Village Council, who was approached for comment explained that he fell gravely ill on the morning the meeting was scheduled and had informed the chief executive officer of the village about it. “The CEO and [village] accountant [were] away [on] a workshop and I had a terrible runny stomach and was unable to get out of bed. I called the CEO to inform him that I was unwell. One of the councillors Sylvie Fredericks was busy with church activities and could not make it. Another councillor called me to inform me that she had trouble with transport,” he said, adding that the council had only received a week’s notice about the visit of the committee.
By Jemima Beukes