TSES… Julian Christiaan, the man in charge of affairs at the Tses Village Council, said although most local authorities are currently swimming through stormy waters of economic hardship, they remain optimistic that the economic situation here can improve through proper planning and strategies.

This was his view when interviewed by New Era about the affairs of the entity. “I can proudly attest that our council is not operating on overdraft facilities from commercial banks, but rather we budget and plan thoroughly to cover our operational and capital projects. This is whilst trying our best to deliver the services still needed for our residents, which is not easy, as the demand for it grows by the day,” the council chairperson noted.

As part of cost-cutting measures, travelling outside is by all means limited as far as possible, whereas sometimes only one person is representing the village council where its presence is needed.

 In terms of recently-completed projects, Christiaan mentioned the construction of precast-based flush toilets to an amount of just over N$3 million for residents living in informal settlements.

 “Council further completed a sewer infrastructure project costing N$600 000, and additionally completed roads maintenance and upgrading services of more than N$1 million,” he said.

Turning his attention to uncompleted and outstanding projects, he observed that as part of expanding water infrastructure, they are busy rehabilitating boreholes in the riverbed downtown, and also proclaiming Extensions One, Two and Three in the villagw. Once the areas are zoned, erven will be serviced and made available for sale to residents in order to ease the demand for housing. 

Christiaan continued: “Like most other local authorities in the country, we are sitting with a high unemployment rate. But council at least makes sure that when there are ongoing projects happening here, 70% of the unskilled workforce and general workers are from the local community. In addition, all employees of security companies operating here are from the village and nearby areas.” 

 He then bemoaned the fact that they can only choose contractors for projects worth less than N$600 000, as once as it costs more than the ceiling amount, they have to go through the public procurement system. 

The chairperson said the idea of the village council owning a minibus to transport residents to Keetmanshoop for shopping and other related errands is not economically viable.

This is because passengers prefer to make use of public transport available on the B1 road running past the settlement.

He, however, said the council at least generates additional income when renting out their information centre at times for accommodation purposes.

The councillor said with 80% of ratepayers being pensioners, it is sometimes difficult to generate income for service delivery. But to remedy the situation, most residents are now using prepaid electricity.

“On a positive note, we are busy negotiating with an oil company which is interested in establishing a service station at Tses,” he enthused.