Minister of Works and Transport John Mutorwa has railed against the staff and management of government garages across Namibia, highlighting the hundreds of vehicles out of circulation with minor defects and staff not doing their work.

He said government garages are in a chaotic state and an eyesore.

“The image of the government garages is not good at all, and this needs to be solved immediately,” he stressed. 

“Cars are standing, whether it is the government garage in Windhoek, in Katima Mulilo or in Ondangwa. Something has gone terribly wrong,” he said.

Mutorwa added that there are at least 378 cars standing at the government garage in Ondangwa alone. Rundu had 83 vehicles crippled due to the slow implementation process to acquire spare parts. The garages have no spare parts readily available to get vehicles repaired when they are brought in. 

“I opted for the meeting to be here [in Ondangwa], so that people cannot say that the minister is maybe just exaggerating,” he added. 

Mutorwa said government garages are vital public institutions - not only to the ministry of works - but for all government institutions. He observed that this is the reason why they should be kept in order, which currently is not the case. 

“Your place is untidy. It is not attractive,” he lashed out.

Mutorwa, who was on a visit to the Oshana region last week, made the remarks on Wednesday during his stop-over at the government garage in Ondangwa, where he also met with staff.

“This is the ‘hospital’ that provides services to different institutions, including the citizens of this country. Similar to the government garage in Windhoek, when you come here, you don’t hear any sound of any work activities. Something must be terribly wrong,” said Mutorwa with disappointment.

According to him, cars with minor problems are stationed at the garages for a very long time, yet there are people trained to fix them, who are reporting for work every day. Again, internal requisitions are sent to Windhoek, and people sit idle while cars are standing. 

“There are no operations, no service rendered, and everybody stands up and says the problem is the Procurement Act.

“The Procurement Act is not the problem. The problem is some people who are wrongly misapplying the Procurement Act. I will soon discover where the bottleneck is,” he stated.

The Ondangwa government garage’s senior artisan foreman Aron Amakali informed Mutorwa that their garage faces numerous challenges.

“The pool office and job cards office must be separated. The job cards office must have the full attention of the artisan foreman,” he requested. He also stated that they are understaffed, and need administrative officers, drivers and more artisans.

- vkaapanda@nepc.com.na