New Era journalist Festus Hamalwa (FH) sat down with Ondangwa Town Council CEO, Ismael Ileni Namgongo (IN). An array of topics were discussed, ranging from the development of the town to progress made with certain projects and the financial status of Ondangwa.
FH: Kindly outline the new project that started in May to upgrade the existing roads in the town. How is the council faring in that regard?
IN: The council is responsible for developing the Ondangwa town in all facets. Since independence and after the proclamation of Ondangwa, the council has been constructing new municipal infrastructure: roads, sewer systems and sewer collection ponds, freshwater systems, electrical networks (including streetlights), stormwater channels and many other municipal infrastructures and amenities such as recreational facilities for the youth. Apart from the new infrastructure, maintaining it has been one of our major priorities here, at Ondangwa. We should remember that before independence, Ondangwa was one of the few recognised urban settlements in northern Namibia – and as such, most of its infrastructures were constructed many years ago, hence the need for infrastructure revamping, maintenance and upgrading.
Around 2021, the council went on a drive, seeking the opinions of residents and stakeholders in crafting our current strategic plan that is running from 2022/2023 to 2027/2028 financial years.
It is in this document that we have committed ourselves as a council to upgrade most of our infrastructure, especially our roads. We have old areas that were developed before independence and some shortly after independence that had gravel roads, and those are the areas we are targeting with upgrades.
Most of our areas in Extension 1 (Oluno), 2, 3 and 4 (Ondangwa proper) have benefitted from this upgrade, and more than 80% of these areas are covered with bitumen roads now.
Other areas that have seen road upgrades are our informal areas. The council has managed to transform from statuses of informal areas to formal areas now. Roads in most of these areas have upgraded from sandy roads to gravel. Uupopo, Onguta and Ondiiyala are formal areas now.
People in these areas can build houses, get assistance from commercial banks, and use their plots as collateral if they so wish. This process is continuing, and Okangwena, Omashaka, Omakulukuma and Onatsi will soon follow suit.
Roads construction, upgrading and maintenance are costly exercises for any town council. Apart from the great need for new roads and maintaining the old ones, there is a great demand for other new priorities, such as land and housing. As a town council, we are not shying away from these responsibilities. Residents do pay maintenance costs in the form of rates and basic fees for the services we are rendering. Such money must be used for what we are collecting, which is maintenance and new development. Councils are not profit-making institutions, but service-rendering institutions. Our measure for success is not on how much money we have in the bank but how much development we have been able to carry out.
But as an accounting officer, one must be tactful and keep a healthy financial balance of the council that can enable the council to function as a going concern (to be financially stable and able to meet all its financial obligations, and continue discharging its mandate for a foreseeable future). Once that balance is achieved, it is the only way you can gain the trust of the residents, and get them to pay their bills, knowing and seeing where their hard-earned cash is going.
FH: Can you touch on future projects the town council is looking to undertake soon?
IN: Provision of more land and housing projects will remain our number one priority. This is becoming harder by the day because the council must negotiate with Mahangu landowners to give up their land for development. We will be expanding Omashaka for low-income earners. We will finalise the service provision for Onguta (Ext 28) for income earners to construct their houses – those who can afford to get housing bonds.
We will continue with the Build Together housing programme. We are working with the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia for more housing as well as with private development companies that want to assist the council in servicing more land for housing and constructing houses.
We will continue with road upgrading, this time around targeting Extension 16, and will soon move to Extensions 17, 18 & 19, and in our informal areas.
We will continue with the maintenance programme of all our infrastructure, especially roads, sewer and freshwater networks.
FH: What progress has the council recorded at Onantsi?
IN: Onatsi is one of the areas that we are happy with. It has come out as we have planned it to be. We started the development of this area with two main objectives, which were as follows:
To decongest our two informal areas of Uutala and Onguta, and allow proper development of these two areas.
To provide more residential areas for our low-income earners.
The above objectives were met, and as we are speaking, Onguta is decongested, and council was able to formalise it. It is a registered township as we speak. This was not possible without Onatsi, as some people from Onguta must be moved, and proper (legal) plots, streets, etc., must be formed.
Uutala was an illegally-occupied area by people who had no rights to be there. As a result, there were restrictions on the services to be provided, and they were not allowed to build on that land. As we speak, all these people are now legally allocated erven, and can build their houses.
Onatsi has all the basic services such as gravel roads, water, electricity and streetlights. Residents are very happy now that they have their permanent spaces.
FH: Why is it important for the council to focus on service delivery for its residents, especially to the old settlements in the town?
IN: Towns are made up of people, and town councils must provide services to them. Without people, there is no town. Councils must, therefore, always strive to provide quality services to their people. We live in a world of competition, and if a certain town council is not providing quality services, then people will move away, and vice versa.
FH: Can you kindly brief us on the stadium construction, and if everything is still going according to plan?
IN: The stadium construction is one of our flagship projects in Ondangwa town. It is a unique project, and I have never heard of any town council trying a project of this nature. Most of them are crying that the government should come and build for them.
We are different because we are saying we have started, and are committed to finishing this project. We have studied ourselves, our capacities, and our chances of the government constructing this kind of facility in Ondangwa when it is not a regional capital.
These chances are close to zero, and we felt that the government will be building these types of infrastructure in regional capitals. But that does not mean Ondangwa does not have sportspeople and sports talents, hence our decision.
We are still waiting for the government to come on board and support this great initiative that has so many possibilities and potential to grow us as a town, as a region, and as a country. We want to see the Brave Warriors one day hosted in the northern part of the country for an international match, and this will only be possible with Caf and Fifa-accredited stadiums. This is our target.
We made some rounds marketing this idea to the government and most of the State-owned enterprises. Most of them have positively responded to our call, and have given support, while discussions with others are still ongoing on how better they can partner the council in this great initiative.
We are constructing this in smaller phases because of funding, but with the hope that we will get a partner and accelerate the construction.
Council has a lot of teams that are partaking in Namibia Football Association competitions, and we want to give them opportunities to play in front of their home-based followers.
FH: Most local authorities are struggling to make ends meet and deliver quality services to their residents. Some have even enlisted the services of a controversial debt-management firm. How are you managing affairs here, especially debt-management and collection?
IN: Ondangwa is very much affected by the growing number of people who are not paying their bills. Ondangwa is classified as a town council in terms of the Local Authorities Act, Act 23 of 1992, with its subsequent amendments over the years. There is a difference when you are a town council and when you are a village council. With a town council, you must be able to generate your income through the services that you are rendering, and be able to pay all your operational expenditures, including salaries and enough funds for development (the government does provide some development budget as a supplement to what you have already).
With village councils, there are some portions of your budget that the government can pay. When a town is not able to generate enough money to cater for its operations and its development budget, then such a council is technically bankrupt, and its officials are said not to work hard enough to keep such an entity as a going concern.
For the council to work, it must develop systems and procedures on how to bill and collect what is due to it. We must provide services such as water, and be able to collect money, so we go and buy more water or more electricity from the suppliers – in this case, Namwater and Nored. Council must be able to pay salaries to employees so that they keep maintaining our systems.
Otherwise, the services will collapse. Some of the tools that are assisting local authorities are policies. In the case of Ondangwa, we have a policy called ‘Credit Control and Debt- Collection Policy and Procedure’, which was reviewed in 2022. In this policy, there are procedures to be followed by officials, up to a point where a debt-collector must be involved.
In Ondangwa, we have one whose mandate is to collect what is owed to us as well as analyse our debtors and chances of ever recovering if the chances are low. We can recommend independent debt write-offs. The notion that accountants in councils are not working and passing part of their work to debt-collectors is false.
They are rather working hard, and should be supported if we are to have a functioning local authority sector.
If they are not supported, then we are likely to see less and less development and the closing of many town councils and municipalities.
FH: Some experts have advocated for a new approach to financing local authorities, as the government subsidies are not enough. What needs to be done?
IN: Statistics over the years have shown that the country has a high rate of rural-to-urban migration. This means more and more people are moving from villages to towns in search of better lives. Given the above, government funding should go where the people are, and funds should follow the people. We should be seeing increases in funding to the local authorities, as opposed to funding decreases. We should financially capacitate local authorities to be able to provide land, housing and other amenities for the large influx of people from rural areas to urban centres.
FH: What is your message for the residents and the nation at large?
IN: People in different towns should support their local councils and develop their towns by themselves. No one will come and develop your area for you. Support and honour the municipal bills, and encourage and participate in development initiatives.