KATIMA MULILO – The swearing-in ceremony of office – bearers for the Katima Mulilo Town Council, which was scheduled to take place yesterday, was postponed after three members of the opposition chose to boycott it.
The meeting was scheduled to take place at 09h00, but was postponed at 10h30 after all the invited guests, including the magistrate, were left in limbo for more than an hour without an explanation of what was happening.
After the long wait, Katima Mulilo CEO Raphael Liswaniso took to the podium to announce the indefinite postponement of the ceremony without explaining the reasons. However, the reason was evident as Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) councillor Charles Musiyalike, the National Democratic Party’s (NDP) Watson Kalaluka and the Popular Democratic Movement’s (PDM) Lascan Sikosi were having their own media briefing at a different venue, where they announced their planned non-attendance.
Amongst others, they said they are being sidelined and ignored by Swapo councillors. In a notice of motion dated 17 November 2022 and addressed to the council chairperson, Musiyalike had threatened to mobilise other opposition councillors to boycott the swearing-in ceremony if they were not listened to.
Musiyalike said “there is no provision in the Local Authorities Act no 23 of 1992, as amended, that provides for one-sided political party majority nomination and election of political office-bearers into key council positions such as mayor, deputy mayor or chairperson of the management committee.”
He added that according to section 11 of the Local Authorities Act, office-bearers should be elected into key positions “from amongst its members, regardless of the political affiliation and/or based on the principles of the majority political party membership.”
Musiyalike also complained that councillors are being re-elected on the basis of comradeship, and that “key council positions should be occupied based on performance capabilities which are result-oriented”.
Sikosi also stressed during the media briefing that “we want these key positions to be on a rotational basis. We want to share the positions. Failure to do that, we are not going to attend to any swearing-in ceremony, and we are not going to recognise anyone who will be elected.”
According to Kalaluka, the Katima Mulilo Town Council is falling apart due to poor management, and it is about time the councillors put their political affiliation aside and work for the benefit of the residents.
“The council is falling apart. Things are not going right. It is not because of us (the opposition). It is because of some of the individuals who do not want to listen to how we should help each other to develop this town,” he emphasised.