RUNDU – Rundu still needs a member of the council to be sworn in to complete its management in order to be fully functional, however the two Swapo councillors, former Rundu mayor Verna Sinimbo and former deputy mayor Ralf Ihemba say they are fine as ordinary members of council for now.
They have thus rejected nominations in what their critics feel is a case of sour grapes.
“We really don’t have a problem, we just don’t want to join the management, because initially we are supposed to follow the party directive, then the others insisted that they have to follow the law and the same law which they followed makes provision for somebody to decline a nomination of position, so there is nothing wrong with that as we are in line with the law,” said Ihemba who last rejected the nomination last month.
Ihemba told New Era he does not see the reason why he should be forced to join the management committee, especially when there is an opposition elected to that management during the last swearing in ceremony when some councillors defied a party directive that saw a change in power at council and a member of the All Peoples Party was elected to management by a Swapo councillor. “Why should I join to be with an opposition while all the positions are supposed to be for Swapo? if they were clever enough when we held a swearing in ceremony earlier this year, they were supposed to leave the two management positions vacant and not nominate an opposition to be in the management, they could have left the positions open even though we declined initially we could have taken up the positions later when things cooled down,” he said.
“our people voted very well for the party to deserve all the five positions to serve them and now you give the position to the opposition, so we are not willing to join the management committee,” Ihemba added.
The management committee is a governing structure which ensures that matters that are submitted to council are filtered thoroughly, with the highest scrutiny to ensure that decision making at council is qualitative. In other words management committee should ensure that what the town technocrats, administrators are submitting to council is in line with council’s strategy.
Secondly, their role is also to see whether the administrators have fullfilled all the regulations, bylaws and policies, applied their minds in a sober manner and with all the best intentions. In the absence of a management committee, the town is crippled as important decisions that are supposed to move it forward will not be taken, as not all decision making is delegated to the CEO but those that are supposed to be handled by the management will move slow as there won’t be going ahead, and thus the implementation of decisions, programs and plans may be affected including simple things like for instance a disciplinary hearing for staff members as the onus to appoint or compose a panel lies with the management committee.
“I’m happy to serve as an ordinary councillor in the council, and I don’t need to be in the management committee to serve the council as I am already serving as an ordinary member,” Sinimbo said during a telephone conversation with New Era. “Leadership changes and it’s better to step aside and let others bring in their ideas and if a councillor does not want to serve in the management committee one can decline and the Local Authority Act is clear on that which is the case with me,” she added.
“I was happy to have served as the mayor for three years, the remaining two years I want to serve as an ordinary councillor, I’m happy about it,” she continued.