John Muyamba
RUNDU – Residents of Rundu are now seeking divine intervention and have organised a prayer day today for the town’s administration which is in chaos with constant disunity amongst the council members which has now brought operations in the Rundu Town Council to a standstill.
The prayer event is set to start this morning at 08h00.
The disunity amongst the councillors has reached record levels and even residents are also divided over which councillors they support.
“We have arranged with various churches to come and lead the town with prayers, we have also informed the mayor Isak Kandingu in a letter to invite all the councillors to attend as well as staff,” said a local businesswoman Elizabeth Hilger who is spearheading the prayer day. The town residents are particularly unhappy about the disunity amongst council members and the lack of a complete management due to that and also dejected about the resignation of the acting CEO Sikongo Haihambo who recently tendered his resignation citing the challenges of operating without a fully fledged council management committee.
Residents argue that he has brought changes to the town’s administration in a short time that he has been around.
They also say when the current acting CEO came to the office where lack of revenue was an issue, the town was unable to buy enough water for households and businesses, schools and hospitals would go without water for days or their waste and refuse being collected, but he managed to bring in revenue streams along with changes.
Residents further say, he knew how to make use of the little that is available to make a change in the town that has been bombarded with challenges of rising municipal debts, interrupted water due to non-payment to NamWater and poor waste management.
“He focused on using money wisely for the town to pay for its debts and provide services to residents and the operation of the council. As a business person, I like how he does things, he have financial discipline, he spearheaded the operation to locate and close illegal water connections that has affected the town so much. When he came we met him through a meeting which he held with business people to hear from us on how to turn things around, so hearing he resigned touched us, thus we thought this town need prayers,” Hilger said.
“As residents, we would like him to at least stick around but the current atmosphere in the council has made him want to leave, so we want to pray as a town to bring peace and unity amongst councillors in order for service delivery to move ahead because,” Hilger added.