Local authorities ‘overlooked’
The Nudo party says local authorities should be the main players in the delivery of public services.
STAFF REPORTER
The National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo) has accused the government of not supporting local authorities.
Party spokesperson Joseph Kauandenge said local authorities were the first point of entry in relation to the provision of basic services to people.
“These government institutions serve as the yardstick of how and to what degree basic services are provided to our people in the country.”
According to Kauandenge the government has been treating local authorities as “a nuisance” ever since independence.
“In fact local authorities in Namibia are treated as an extension of the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development, but not as legal entities with statutory and legal powers to carry out their own work,” he charged.
He said the mushrooming of informal settlements in many towns was a direct result of the government’s inability to decentralise powers to municipalities.
Its reluctance to subsidise municipalities was a major reason why many local municipalities continued to struggle with providing decent housing.
“It is high time that the government realises that for as long as local authorities are not empowered through proper legislation to receive subsidies from government, and if there is no paradigm shift towards empowering them through elevating municipalities’ status and roles as equal partners in the creation of an enabling environment for our citizens in this country, then the status quo will continue.”
Kauandenge said the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development must move towards an era where local authorities could be empowered to provide basic services to people as an extension of the government’s responsibilities, rather than continuing with the current status quo.
He said forward-looking countries moved away from treating local authorities as mere spectators in the game of service delivery and elevated them to equal and active participants in providing basic services to their people.
He added that it was inappropriate for President Hage Geingob to say that Namibia was moving in the right direction in addressing issues relating to poverty through the Harambee Prosperity Plan.
According to him the Harambee Prosperity Plan might be full of lofty promises but it would be hard to deliver on those promises.
“In simple terms for as long as those with ties to government leaders continue to milk the state of hard-earned cash and vanish into thin air, as long as tenders are inflated to benefit a select few, and as long as the ills of corruption continue to be swept under the carpet to protect a select few, then that cheque will continue to come back time and time again, with the same words.”
The National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo) has accused the government of not supporting local authorities.
Party spokesperson Joseph Kauandenge said local authorities were the first point of entry in relation to the provision of basic services to people.
“These government institutions serve as the yardstick of how and to what degree basic services are provided to our people in the country.”
According to Kauandenge the government has been treating local authorities as “a nuisance” ever since independence.
“In fact local authorities in Namibia are treated as an extension of the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development, but not as legal entities with statutory and legal powers to carry out their own work,” he charged.
He said the mushrooming of informal settlements in many towns was a direct result of the government’s inability to decentralise powers to municipalities.
Its reluctance to subsidise municipalities was a major reason why many local municipalities continued to struggle with providing decent housing.
“It is high time that the government realises that for as long as local authorities are not empowered through proper legislation to receive subsidies from government, and if there is no paradigm shift towards empowering them through elevating municipalities’ status and roles as equal partners in the creation of an enabling environment for our citizens in this country, then the status quo will continue.”
Kauandenge said the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development must move towards an era where local authorities could be empowered to provide basic services to people as an extension of the government’s responsibilities, rather than continuing with the current status quo.
He said forward-looking countries moved away from treating local authorities as mere spectators in the game of service delivery and elevated them to equal and active participants in providing basic services to their people.
He added that it was inappropriate for President Hage Geingob to say that Namibia was moving in the right direction in addressing issues relating to poverty through the Harambee Prosperity Plan.
According to him the Harambee Prosperity Plan might be full of lofty promises but it would be hard to deliver on those promises.
“In simple terms for as long as those with ties to government leaders continue to milk the state of hard-earned cash and vanish into thin air, as long as tenders are inflated to benefit a select few, and as long as the ills of corruption continue to be swept under the carpet to protect a select few, then that cheque will continue to come back time and time again, with the same words.”
Comments
Namibian Sun
No comments have been left on this article