Charles Ndeumane
Minister of Urban and Rural Development Erastus Uutoni says he is losing patience with councillors fighting with one another.
He was speaking at the handover of the Outapi Town Council services infrastructure.
He said they should instead be dedicating themselves to their responsibilities of providing services and fostering development in their towns and constituencies.
He said his ministry recently held a workshop where some councillors were given training after he observed chaos within their office.
He added that after providing them (councillors) with the induction workshop, they went back to their communities, and started demonstrating at the office of the town council.
“Just imagine, a councillor, holding a high portfolio in the council, is there toyi-toying in the streets. To whom are you going to complain, yet you’re the councillor? And I’ve just provided them with training in terms of good governance, administrative management and many other things in terms of the Local Authority Act.
My message to those councillors is that my patience is growing slim. After giving them training, it’s like what I taught them didn’t mean anything to them,” he bemoaned.
He however expressed satisfaction with the Outapi Town Council for its dedication to development and service provision.
Some of the services that were handed over are sewage services, electricity, clean water and a dumping site.
The Outapi town council’s dumping site was certified
for the first time this year
since the council’s establishment.
Uutoni said that Outapi has one of the best-performing councils in the country, as the progress is visible.
“I am very happy to see so much development in Outapi. Considering that Outapi Town Council was only declared in 1997, it’s clear that the council is doing a great job, and that is possible because of you, the people of this town, and your good leadership. The council is not fighting, but rather working together to serve the people,” he noted.