By Surihe Gaomas WINDHOEK Disgruntled residents of Witvlei are urgently requesting the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development to speed up investigations into claims of corruption, mismanagement of funds, embezzlement of funds and abuse of public property at the Witvlei Village Council. Demands were also made for the immediate suspension of the current chief executive officer, Gerson Kavitjene, as well as administrative staff pending formal investigations into these allegations. On Monday, over 100 community members of Witvlei village in the Omaheke Region staged a peaceful demonstration to raise their longstanding concerns with the Council. Residents marched, under police escort, from the river bridge along the main road, past the bakery, Ziegie’s Accommodation and the church, to the Council Offices where they handed in a petition to the relevant authorities. “We, the Witvlei community, are very tired of oppression by the Witvlei Village Council,” said the leader of the Concerned Community Group, Petrina Oaes. She listed the numerous claims of alleged corruption. Reading the petition, she stated that there is corruption involving the Village Council in terms of misuse of vehicles belonging to Council, late water billing, embezzlement of cheques amounting to thousands of dollars. New Era learnt that one of the cheques for N$80ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 was allegedly embezzled by the members of the Council. Other concerns centred on tenders not being advertised appropriately, outstanding police investigations of the Council since 2003, inadequate refuse collection services, some of which have not been removed since August 2006, as well as leaking pipes that cause water wastage. The petition also says that tenders for the construction of the Joel Kaapanda Park, the soccer field and for the graveyard were apparently given to Council employees. “We want to know what happened to the donation of N$45ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 received from a mine in September 2006. We want a proper investigation into the Build-Together Programme – it has been outstanding now for years,” said Oaes, who added that councillors are only enriching themselves with Council money. “Our councillors need to be held more accountable, with transparency and more community involvement,” read the two-page petition. This is the second time Witvlei residents have demonstrated over these grievances, the last time being in December last year. The petition, which was handed over to the Witvlei Village Council authorities, has been forwarded to the Omaheke Regional Council for attention. In response to the grievances, Witvlei Village Council CEO Gerson Kavitjene said most of the allegations contained in the petition are not backed by strong evidence and are therefore not true. “Some of the things they are saying they cannot prove, and they seem to have a political agenda or motive behind them,” said Kavitjene, adding that proper investigations are needed before any suspensions can take place. He noted that although the community have the right to complain about poor service delivery, they should understand that the Council is also doing its part in addressing the problems like, for instance, that of refuse removal. “The problem of refuse removal is there because of the non-payment of municipal services by the residents themselves. The Council is working hard to rectify the situation. Three months ago the refuse collection machine was broken, and it took time to order the parts from South Africa, but now it’s been fixed and is working,” explained Kavitjene. With regard to the alleged embezzlement of the Council’s N$80ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 000 cheque, that case has been handed over to the police for further investigation. The Council is due to hold a meeting next Monday about the petition, after which they will give feedback to the community representatives of the Concerned Group on Wednesday.