Booys to stay put

Following months of community meetings, protest actions and petitions, a group of Okahandja residents who are demanding that regional councillor Steve 'Biko' Booys be removed, heard on Monday afternoon that it was impossible.Urban and rural development minister Peya Mushelenga, who met with the protesters at the municipal council chambers, informed the group that the Regional Councils Act does not allow for the removal of a regional councillor by the minister or otherwise. This can only be done through an election.The group's disappointment was palpable and things heated up as Mushelenga was accused of flouting the constitution. Peru Gariseb, who spoke in Afrikaans, pleaded with the minister, saying “we are human beings”. He continued by saying the minister should verify the allegations against Booys and then “take action because we are not here to be hurt”.The meeting was requested following a petition by the group sent to President Hage Geingob last year on 7 December, calling for his intervention. This was followed by a protest action on 11 January. Monday's meeting, which was to have started at 14:00, was delayed by 45 minutes as Mushelenga refused to enter the municipal offices before the large crowd of protestors was removed. Namibian Sun was informed that the minister feared for his safety, but the crowd was calm and quiet. They were moved to the adjacent street and told to stand on the opposite pavement, where police - armed with batons - closed off the street and stood in the middle of the road.At the start of the meeting, Mushelenga berated the group, saying he had arrived in Okahandja at 13:45.He added he had “given the group three hours” as he had to be back in Windhoek for a meeting at 18:00, and the group “had wasted 45 minutes”.The members of the group who met with the minister again aired their grievances, which include a lack of service delivery, a lack of development, no new infrastructure or maintenance of existing infrastructure taking place. They also said that children aged between six and 11 survive from the local dumpsite, by selling glass bottles and collecting what they can to eat. They lamented the abuse of dagga and added that schoolgoing children are smoking the drug as well as selling it. Booys was also accused of using his office for his own gratification and for sowing discontent, mistrust, confusion and division. One group member said she was able to raise the money and infrastructure to feed 200 children, but that Booys, who had been in office for nine years, had not been able to achieve that.Wilfred Goaseb, also a member of the group, told Mushelenga that looking at the Harambee Prosperity Plan and the Fourth National Development Plan, Booys had not met one pillar or target.Another member, Basie Tjikune, said their grievances were not theirs alone but “were those of the majority of the residents of Okahandja”.The group wanted to know why, if the minister knew he could not remove Booys, he came to the meeting at all, calling this a “waste of time”. Mushelenga responded by saying the group had demanded to see him and had refused a meeting with his deputy, Derek Klazen.“Is it bad that I came here?” he asked, adding, “I have come to hear your concerns and listen to your grievances.”Mushelenga, after giving the members of the group time to address him, asked several questions and undertook to engage the regional council, as well as Booys, on the issues raised. He also instructed the group to raise the issues discussed with the relevant structures provided. He also undertook to give feedback. YANNA SMITH

Booys to stay put

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Namibian Sun 2026-05-13

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Booys to stay put

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Namibian Sun 2026-05-13

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