2015-07-17Staff Report 2 Rundu Rundu mayor Hilka Levi said she and other councillors at the town will not attend a public meeting slated for tomorrow at which the Kavango Development and Progress Forum (KDPF) will announce alleged corruption cases it has uncovered at the town council. KDPF was established in 2009 by Masupa WaKudumo. The group have been mobilising public support through their Facebook page and announced on NBC’s RuKavango radio service its meeting tomorrow. The group invited the public as well as local authority councillors to respond to certain questions and issues at the meeting. “We have called you, and through you the media to inform the residents of Rundu about an announcement that was broadcast on the NBC’s RuKavango service on Wednesday [July 15], by a group calling themselves the Kavango Development and Progress Forum or KDPF,” Levi said. “The announcement was about an invitation to a public meeting that is scheduled for Saturday. The group also extended an invitation to the local authority councillors of Rundu to attend and to respond to a host of issues that they (KDPF) pinpointed,” said Levi. According to the KDPF secretary Linus Neumbo the meeting is still going ahead, adding that the town councillors are afraid to attend the meeting for reasons they very well know. “We have sent the council an email of what to expect in the meeting. Some of the things uncovered were also attached to the email, that is why they are afraid,”Neumbo said. The group aims to discuss three main points at the public meeting. The group alleges that the Rundu Town Council has, amongst others, failed to call any information sharing meetings with the public. Councillors were also invited to answer to a string of corruption allegations. Levi said she and other local authority councillors have no problem sitting down with KDPF, but asked that procedures be followed in convening such meetings. “As a mayor and chairperson of the Rundu Town Council, I would like to inform the public as follows: before the councillors accept the invitation to attend the planned meeting, we would first of all like to engage the executive committees or leaders of the KDPF by way of a meeting,” she said. “Secondly, also to give these leaders a platform to bring to the table issues that are of concern to them rather than have a sort of debate with them in the presence of the public and, thirdly, council would also enlighten KDPF leaders on the correct procedures and processes to follow to engage and eventually demand elected councillors attend a public meeting,” Levi said. “Rundu town councillors are therefore informing the public and KDPF that they are not against their meeting, however the emphasis is that doing things procedurally is the only way in which participative communication can be enhanced.” 2015-07-17Staff Report 2
