WALVIS BAY – The Walvis Bay council has suspended three of its councillors, following a special council meeting held on Thursday as per the standing rules of order, for a period of one month.

This was announced by the town’s mayor and chairperson of the council, Trevino Forbes, at a media briefing on Friday.

The three councillors, who are all members of the Swapo Party are Ephraim Shozi, Albertina Nkoshi and Paulus Kauhondamwa.

Forbes said the three councillors have been suspended for contravening the local authority standing rule number 41, as well as the code of
conduct.

“As you might have all seen, there was a council meeting which was deeply disruptive, and some words were also exchanged.

So, two councillors were charged for contravening the standing rules of order, and the other one for contravening the standing rules of order, and also for breaking the code of conduct for councillors,” he revealed.

He added that the council, as per the standing rules of order, has the full duty to suspend councillors for no longer than one month.

Forbes added that despite multiple efforts to try and restore unity among the councillors, with visits to both the Regional Governor as well as the line ministry, these efforts proved futile.

He noted that the council will continue to operate under the standing rules of order and the code of conduct.

Meanwhile, Swapo Coordinator in the Erongo region, Daniel Muhuura condemned the action, adding that the party does not take it lightly and will take the necessary action against the council.

“These are Swapo councillors on a ticket of [the] Swapo Party. They were not deployed by IPC, and so if there is any misconduct of our party councillors, it is the party that needs to call them to order or discipline them.

Where do they get the authority or the power to suspend the councillors, who were not deployed by them? So, it is something that we do not take lightly, and we are going to challenge it,” he said.
-Nampa