Otniel Hembapu
Hundreds of disgruntled Katutura residents have demanded that the City of Windhoek parts ways with RedForce Debt Management, saying the debt collection firm is not solution-oriented and is dragging them further into the mud.
RedForce Debt Management is the firm appointed by the Windhoek Municipality to collect millions of dollars in outstanding water and electricity payments owed by the city’s residents.
At a community meeting last week, most residents complained about the “unfriendly” and at times “unprofessional” methods and approach of RedForce when dealing with the accounts of residents, with many saying the firm demands astronomical amounts from the already debt-ridden residents. The meeting was led by former City of Windhoek councillor and current chairman of the Katutura Residents’ Committee Alderman Benestus Kandundu, who on behalf of the residents demanded that the municipality immediately does away with RedForce as a collector, and to rather focus on strengthening its internal debt collection processes and systems.
“We have always raised our concerns and questions about RedForce, and how it is treating our residents. If anything, RedForce is not helping but worsening the living conditions of poor residents.
Go and look around, people have not fully- recovered from the effects of Covid-19 as many lost their jobs, and most households lost their breadwinners as well. Things are not easy for these people, and Redforce is making it worse for them. RedForce is more concerned about making its profits at the expense of our poor residents,” he charged.
“We, as the residents of Katutura, are calling for the immediate termination of the agreement between the City of Windhoek and RedForce. We equally call upon the municipality to rather strengthen its internal debt collection department as we believe they will do a much better job in helping our struggling residents”, said Kandundu.
He also called on the City to make its debt collection methods more accommodative for residents, and less punitive in nature.
“The residents are trying their best to keep their accounts up-to-date, but the socio-economic situation in the country is not making it any easier for them. And now the municipality has deployed RedForce to further worsen the situation by sometimes demanding huge and unrealistic down-payments if the residents want their services reconnected. RedForce must go!”
For their part, City of Windhoek spokesperson Lydia Amutenya said the municipality has tried everything at its disposal to make its internal debt collection process as smooth and easy as possible, but residents just don’t abide by their payment obligations.
“We really understand the situation of the residents. But it must also be understood that the municipality will not be able to pay for its bulk services [from Namwater and Nampower] if the residents are not paying for their part. RedForce only came into the picture a few years back, but we have always relied on our internal collection process. Still, the residents were not looking after their accounts. Clients would come in and make payment arrangements, but most of those clients would still end up defaulting on their own payment arrangements,” she observed in an interview with the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation.
Amutenya added that accounts which are handed over to RedForce are mostly those beyond 90 to 120 days in outstanding payments, and these are usually handed over after having exhausted the available internal processes and systems of collection.
- ohembapu@nepc.com.na