Kalkrand rebels against village council

Tempers flared and back-and-forth accusations were hurled after a demonstration at Kalkrand in the Hardap Region last Thursday over alleged mismanagement, corruption and fraud at the village council.
The demonstration to petition government bodies and politicians over alleged poor service from the village council was led by James Hansen, who is known for his crusades on foot carrying a wooden cross from Kalkrand to Windhoek.
Before the day of the demonstration, the Hardap police commander, Andries van der Byl, had summoned Hansen to meet him at Mariental to discuss the demonstration.
Van der Byl said the police wanted to ensure that Hansen, who is labelled as “schizophrenic” and “off his rocker” by some police and council officers, does not revert to insults during the demonstration.
Hansen refused to meet with Van der Byl beforehand and the demonstration continued where a petition was handed over with a demand for the suspension of the chief executive officer of the village council, Seth Boois, for alleged corruption and failed projects at the council.
Hansen claimed that the contractor of the tender to upgrade and replace the vacuum sewer system, Kings Enterprises Trading CC, had installed 30 sewage tanks but that Boois had claimed for the payment of 60 tanks from the Hardap Regional Council.
Boois’s suspension was purportedly also demanded in a letter to an investigating team of the ministry of urban and rural development earlier this year. It is claimed in the petition that the office of the village council was broken into days before the investigating team arrived and laptops were stolen and certain council information was deleted.
Boois was also accused of failing to oversee the execution and completion of public projects.
Residents said the tanks of the vacuum sewer system were not correctly connected, causing sewage to spill out in the streets and back up into people’s houses. Many of the manholes connected to the system were installed in the middle of the gravel roads, blocking traffic and making the use of donkey carts virtually impossible. The ministry and village council last Friday advertised a new tender for the replacement of the vacuum sewer system.
Another eyesore is what was supposed to be a soccer stadium which in fact is an incomplete structure that has never been in use and is falling apart at the seams because of poor workmanship and a derelict open field that was paid for in full.
Boois had advertised a tender for the renovation of the pavilion but the ministerial investigating team had reportedly advised that the structure be demolished because it is not fit for use. A tender to fix a thatched roof at a stall for small businesses is yet to commence a year after the tender was awarded.
Hansen claimed a tender to lay an interlocked road in Kalkrand is Boois’s attempt to corruptly benefit from it.

Boois blames Hanse-Himarwa
An enraged Boois claimed that the former Hardap governor and now minister of education, arts and culture, Katrina Hanse-Himarwa, had instigated Hansen to organise the demonstration because of an ongoing public fight between her and his wife, Yvonne Boois, whose chances of becoming a Swapo councillor in the region were reportedly scuppered by Hanse-Himarwa.
The minister didn’t respond to questions sent to her yesterday.
Boois also claimed that the Hardap Regional Council chairperson, Edward Wambo, and others on the council, Tessa Basson and Julius Engelbrecht, are conspiring to have him fired and accused them of being “heartless” for having stopped his wife from receiving a salary from the regional council while she is on suspension.
Boois also said he had considered to resign but would stay on for the remaining two years of his term because of the demonstration.
“I am not going anywhere,” Boois said emphatically. “I was the first person before Wambo and these people who in 1989 came to this region to campaign for Swapo.”
He did, however, say “as a loyal citizen of the country” he would vacate his position should Minister Sophia Shaningwa ask him to leave.
He said professional people are reluctant to work at the village council because of the insults and threats they have to endure from Hansen, saying he had applied for a restraining order against Hansen after Hansen threatened to burn him and his family alive.
Boois said President Hage Geingob is “reluctant” to call Hanse-Himarwa to order.
“Other people around this country are being called to order. There is something seriously wrong that we need to address otherwise we have an ANC in Namibia where only certain people are being called to order while others are not and they are given free rein,” Boois said.
He called on Geingob to institute a commission of inquiry into the Hardap region which he said has the most murders, lowest education levels and most pervasive poverty in the country.
On the allegations of corruption and fraud Boois said only an investigation can prove that.
CATHERINE SASMAN