WALVIS BAY – The Walvis Bay municipal council will finally write off millions in outstanding debt for pensioners, while ordinary residents and businesses at the harbour town will also have some of their interest waived.
This was revealed during the series of community meetings held by council to brief residents about the status of the town as well as envisaged developments.
Residents currently owe the municipality a total of N$265 million, with those in Kuisebmond alone owing N$100 million, followed by Walvis Bay urban residents who owe council N$96 million.
Narraville residents owe council N$22 million, Meersig (N$15 million), Dolphin Beach (N$22 million) and Longbeach (N$7 million).
Speaking during the consultative meetings, mayor Trevino Forbes said the town has been hard-hit by Covid-19 and faced economic hardships during that time.
“We, as council, hence passed a resolution to assist our rates and taxpayers by bringing debt relief in various ways for our residents,” Forbes said.
According to him, only pensioners will have their debt written off on the condition they are registered at the municipality.
Council in February this year indicated about N$60.7 million of debt owed by pensioners and customers that also included outstanding interest on residential property improvements (N$54 million) from the date the interest started accumulating up to the end of February.
According to council, 102 369 customers and 1 026 pensioners will benefit from the debt relief.