2017-02-17Staff Report 2 In response to an article published in the New Era newspaper on 03 February 2017, “Proclamation for Rosh Pinah long overdue –Councillor”, RoshSkor Township would like to provide the following information on a few misleading parts of the article. RoshSkor Township was established to ensure excellent services for the current and future inhabitants and investors of Rosh Pinah, whilst fostering a conducive community and business environment. RoshSkor offers the following services to the residents of Rosh Pinah in the absence of a local authority office, water, electricity, sanitation and refuse removal, and provision of plots. The company has been committed to allocating erven to private individuals with an interest of settling in Rosh Pinah – however this recently came to a halt due to the capacity of the water and electricity infrastructure which the company is busy upgrading. We are committed to improve services in Rosh Pinah by not only serving the mine employees, but the rest of the town. At the moment, land is leased out to residents, of which private residents living in town fairly compensate RoshSkor for infrastructural development. In Tutungeni, which has 942 residential erven, and 104 businesses, the residents are issued with plots at no cost, and do not pay rental amounts as alleged by the honorable councillor. Instead, they are expected to pay a service delivery fee of N$ 100.00 per month for residential plots, and N$170 per month for business plots. These services include the provision of communal sanitation facilities, water points, refuse removal and cleaning of the toilets daily and graded gravel access roads. Electricity in Tutungeni is partially subsidized by RoshSkor as the approved charge on tariff is N$ 2.20 while town pays N$2.40. Those without proper housing are the economically incapacitated residents, just as it is in any other part of the country. It should further be known that our 2016/2017 budget’s biggest portion is allocated to the improvement of services in Tutungeni, which is our way of living up to the government’s Harambee Prosperity Plan. These include the upgrade of the water pipelines which was concluded towards the end of 2016, to allow all the residents of Tutungeni to have private water connections, and not a lot of informal settlements in the country can boast this success. Another project of which the calls to tender are out, is the upgrade of the toilet facilities in Tutungeni, changing to treated water system from the sewer, and installing pipelines. A good working relationship between ourselves and the councillor’s office would have allowed him to be at pace with the latest developments and the different capital projects planned for Rosh Pinah, but instead, he chooses to work in isolation, deliberately misleading the nation with a view of discrediting RoshSkor. Honourable Nangolo’s predecessor, Hon Eliphas Iita, was very keen on working together with RoshSkor, that a few projects we embarked upon were collectively implemented by both offices. We still are hoping for a prosperous working relationship and have aspirations of working together with individuals and governmental institutions such as the councillor’s office to ensure the development of fruitful relations that will bring about profound socio-economic benefits and harmony to the Rosh Pinah community. RoshSkor and its affiliates believe that the upliftment of Rosh Pinah should not only commence once the town has been proclaimed, but long-term viability studies should be undertaken now to provide evidence of the possibility of creating supplementary industries with a profound economic impact that will ensure economic sustainability. We have spent years serving the Rosh Pinah community in a professional manner and have always sought to build a positive reputation amongst residents and all external stakeholders. Ronnie Slabbert. RoshSkor Township (Pty) Ltd 2017-02-17Staff Report 2
