Maihapa Ndjavera
In adopting the principle of pre-allocation of land, Mayor of Windhoek Job Amupanda recently stated the city has planted a seed of allocating land, which he said is currently being planned, and subsequently cleared and demarcated.
“The aim is to avail land to the masses of our people who, for years, were on a municipality waiting list. The intent is to avail such land at an accelerated rate and make a vast impact on the quality of life of our people,” said Amupanda last week at the occasion of the City’s Sixth Ordinary Council Meeting.
He stated that the City is in a process of recruiting a substantial CEO, saying this is a key function of the municipal Council of Windhoek and will greatly assist in conceptualising and implementing developmental plans.
“The absence of a substantive head of administration has a negative impact on our transformation journey. Part of the selection and vetting criteria for such a principal office bearer will now require candidates to make public presentations and take questions from the public,” he noted.
Amupanda added that the seeds of transparency were planted in the City and “with this seed, we seek to negate and eliminate an old culture of clandestine dealings, and suspicious recruitment practices of senior executives”.
Furthermore, while delivering his mayoral address, Amupanda said the city is taking resolute decisions of enforcing debt management and credit policies, stating that they are also negating an old culture of non-payment of municipal services, so that in future, everyone respects and takes the municipal bills seriously.
“By settling the municipal debt to several creditors, most of which we found (having accumulated over past years), we planted a seed of sound financial stewardship and took responsibility as part of greater national duty of care and accountability,” he specified.
By initiating a call for innovative ideas for economic growth through the adoption of the Windhoek Economic Recovery initiative (WERI), for which an expression of interest will appear in public in the coming weeks, Amupanda said the Council is acting resolutely and negating the corrupt culture, pointing out in existence for 31 years, where only economic or business proposals of the connected, who pay bribes to officials and councillors, reach the Council.
“We are clear, as we learn from physics, that unless we take drastic measures, the Municipal Council of Windhoek will remain at rest and move at the same speed. To plant the seed of transformation, we characterise ourselves as the unbalanced force, acting upon the city at rest and in motion at the same speed,” said Amupanda.