BETHANIE – Bethanie Village Council chairperson Diederik Frederick says the lack of administrators in key positions hinders the smooth delivery of services to the village’s inhabitants.
In an interview with Nampa recently, Frederick said for the past eight months or so, the village council had only one substantive appointee, making it difficult for the village council to function smoothly.
“We have council meetings and make resolutions, but such resolutions cannot be carried out because of the lack of administrators. Right now we only have one substantive appointee, Reginald Kennedy, who is the accountant and acting CEO. He is the human resource manager, technical head and the list goes on, he wears all those hats and it is really difficult for us to carry out resolutions to the benefit of our people,” Frederick said.
The village council has also been without a CEO for three years since Hendrik Gaobaeb resigned.
According to Frederick, interviews were held on three occasions but no candidate was successful.
“In the past, we did interview people for some of these positions but candidates fell out at the interview level. Even the interest of people applying here is very low, we do not have more than three applicants per position, other people also come and use this place as a stepping stone to higher grounds, that’s why we have no staff because people come, stay for a while and leave,” he said.
He further said the council will continue to advertise the vacancies and will bring in the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development to help search for candidates to fill the vacant positions.
“We have written a letter to the //Kharas
Regional Council so that we can have people seconded to help us, but we are still waiting for their response. Many people say Bethanie is too far. I think it’s best we get people from here but that becomes difficult as our people do not have the qualifications nor the skills,” Frederick said.
The chairperson also revealed that a finding by the Electricity Control Board in 2021 indicated that the village council is operating at a loss of 67% in electricity due to their outdated and ageing system.
“That affects revenue collection, we are paying NamPower 100% while we are losing 67% of what we receive,” he added. - Nampa