Windhoek
Several public bodies have submitted lists of what they would like to see the Windhoek Municipality implement to improve the lives of the over 300 000 city inhabitants.
This ranges from more land allocation for more service centres, security features, water and electricity provision, road upgrades, formalization of informal settlements and the addition of workers’ representatives on the city’s tender board. The entities – National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW), Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI),Windhoek Residents and Ratepayers Association and the Khomas Regional Council (KRC) – made the requests in separate letters submitted to the municipality after they were invited to make contributions to the drafting of the city’s 2015/2016 annual budget.
Some have however questioned whether the municipality will take note of their contributions.
The recently tabled budget for 2015/16 is at N$4.04 billion – a 9 per cent increase from the N$3.709 billion of last year – and the N$288 million deficit has been reduced from N$364 million.
NUNW
NUNW wants to represent its members on the city tender board, saying its inclusion will ensure workers’ interests are represented.
In a letter to the municipality in March, NUNW said workers are 90 per cent contributors to the City of Windhoek, hence the request.
“The federation feels strongly that our inclusion in your tender board structure would be good. We therefore request the workers’ interests to be represented on your tender board,” stated the union which represents over 70 000 workers nationwide.
The union also wants city bosses to effect affordable land in a transparent manner.
“The prosperity of any citizen of a town is brought by land. Land has become a diamond and it is no longer affordable to low-income Namibians. Some inhabitants of the city have nowhere to go and cannot afford to buy land,” stated the union.
NCCI
Despite calls for more industries to be established within the city boundaries, land continues to be a crippling factor, which has resulted in NCCI requesting the municipality to avail land for business purposes.
NCCI also requested to partner with the municipality for the setting up of a SME business service centre.
The proposed service centre, said NCCI, will be used to assist aspiring entrepreneurs by providing infrastructure and services at the initial stages.
It also called for the expansion of business service centres for SMEs in the CBD and the townships.
“Many years after independence one would note that we are still operating in the olden times – incubation centres are still being set up in Katutura/townships with no services provided to them to expand or graduate from being merely a SME,” said NCCI.
NCCI also expressed concern that “there are no facilities for upcoming SMEs to operate in the CBD.”
Further, NCCI wants the municipality to see that a state-of-the-art mall is constructed in Katutura, and sport theme parks are built and solar street lights installed in informal settlements.
Windhoek Residents and Ratepayers Association
The association called on the city to consider an electricity, water, rates and tax rebate for pensioners.
“It is well known that that the pension earned by senior citizens do not keep up with the rate of inflation, as do salaries and wages. A rebate would certainly lessen the burden on senior citizens reliant on their pension money,” said the association’s president Manfred Loth.
Loth also pointed out that most of the association’s members are not in support of the fee to support the City Police.
“The feeling is that this is the responsibility of central government and should be supported from the income tax and VAT collected by the Ministry of Finance,” he said.
Loth further called on the municipality to start a restructuring programme to make all its departments more cost efficient.
KRC
Responding to the municipality’s request for input, the Khomas Regional Council requested that more taxi ranks be constructed, as well as pedestrian river bridges, traffic lights and proper open markets and that gravel roads be upgraded to bitumen standard.
It wants the municipality to de-bush and clean riverbeds.
Tobias Hanyeko Constituency councillor Zulu Shitongeni said community members in the constituency want land for the construction of a secondary school, multi-purpose youth resource centre and a police station.
Windhoek West Constituency councillor George Trepper, on the hand, requested a SME park and state clinic in Rocky Crest as well as a student village.
Trepper also requested the municipality to start urban agriculture projects in riverbeds in Hochland Park and Pionierspark.
Khomasdal Constituency councillor Magreth Mensah-Williams wants everyone that is on the city’s waiting list for land allocation to be given the plots that they have applied for.
She also requested that land be availed for the construction of a service station in Otjomuise.