By Alvine Kapitako
OKAHANDJA – Councillor of the Okahandja Constituency, Steve Biko Booys, attributes the dirty state of the town to lack of leadership.
New Era visited the town on Friday and there were piles of dirt in most parts of the town, especially in the settlements.
When asked if the town’s state of dirtiness is caused by a lack of finances, Booys answered frankly: “I think it’s lack of leadership… it’s just a lack of leadership”.
Late last year President Hifikepunye Pohamba publicly rebuked Booys and the town’s mayor, Valerie Aron, on the dirtiness of the town during the official opening of the refurbished Gross Barmen resort.
Booys said he has communicated with the leadership of the Okahandja municipality on several occasions on how to address the problem. New Era is in possession of a letter written by Booys in December last year and addressed to the leadership of the Okahandja municipality asking for a meeting date (in January, 2015) to deliberate on the cleanliness of the town.
“Before the president mentioned this, I have at various platforms brought this under the attention of the local authority,” he said.
“The surface dirt that we see around here is even the least of the concerns. There are greater concerns and I think during my engagement with them I will highlight to them,” said Booys.
He said the sanitation system is falling apart and it needs to be upgraded. “It needs to be brought to a certain standard. Constantly, you find sewage lines blocked everywhere,” added the councillor.
He said further that a few years ago he communicated to the local authority to engage the City of Windhoek to advise the Okahandja municipality on the best strategies to keep the town clean. But, that did not materialise.
“…I have seen on television that the people from [the] local authority have had a cleaning up campaign. I don’t know how much it has done but practically the town remains in the same state. I’m greatly concerned. In fact, my office was tasked by the president to drastically intervene and try to see how we can bring this situation in order,” he said, adding that he communicated to the municipality leadership for a meeting date to address the problem. A solution to this problem, he said is coming up with a long-term strategy on holistically cleaning up the town.
“It is about coming up with a strategy that is aimed at mobilising the community, getting the community involved and letting the community understand what the current situation is,” said Booys.
Vyf Rand (Five Rand) residents who spoke to New Era also complained about the unhygienic state of the town.
“When they (municipality officials) hear that the president is coming to the town they rush and clean,” said one resident.
New Era tried on several occasions last week to schedule an appointment with the municipality of Okahandja leadership, namely Aron and the municipality Chief Executive Officer, Frans Enkali, but to no avail.
When New Era visited the office on Friday afternoon neither the mayor of CEO were in the office. In the morning, the CEO was said to be in a meeting.