Rehoboth is dying - CEO
The Rehoboth council has financial problems that cannot be solved without intervention by the central government, its CEO says.
Rehoboth Town Council chief executive officer Christophe Uirab says the town is on the brink of collapse.
Uirab said in a recent interview that he was trying to make sense of a chaotic environment as a result of piled-up debts, years of mismanagement and alleged corruption.
According to him he is forced to run council affairs on an ad-hoc basis since there is “no money” in reserve and the council can only deliver services such as water and electricity with the daily payments from residents.
Rehoboth residents owe the council N$106 million for services rendered and according to Uirab the affluent suburbs such as Blocks D and A must subsidise non-paying areas such as Blocks E and C.
“And do you know currently even the council employees here are standing collectively at N$1.3 million, an individual owes about N$30 to 40 000. How can it be? I have never seen this at any other municipality but in this place it has happened,” he exclaimed.
He added that about 95% of Block E residents owed the council N$20 000 or more.
Uirab said the council had entered into a prepaid arrangement with NamWater but it was expected to pay monthly instalments of N$700 000 in an effort to clear its N$29 million outstanding debt.
“If we do not pay that, then they will deduct the money from the money that we have paid for the units. And the worst part is that they can only update the units if they have received proof of payment, they are not keeping in mind that there are long queues in the bank or that all signatories are not always in the office,” lamented Uirab.
According to him, it costs the council N$2.5 million per month to supply the town with water, 40% of which is lost to burst pipes.
The council is however, often only able to scrape together N$500 000 or less hence the frequent disconnections.
Infrastructure
According to Uirab the town cannot afford to maintain the water infrastructure and the town's streets without government intervention.
“I receive a lot of complaints from residents, but we do not even have a grader and no heavy-duty machine to fix the roads,” he said.
Meanwhile, for the last few weeks the town has been flooded with sewage, which is threatening residents' health as well as the groundwater resource.
“It is really a big problem. As a result the Ministry of Environment and Tourism has revoked our permit and declared us unfit to manage the evaporation pond,” said Uirab.
He added that the sewerage infrastructure, which dates back to the apartheid government more than three decades ago, was no longer reliable.
“We simply do not have the capacity to manage the pumping station, if any problem arises then we must call in the help of private companies,” he said.
The council is currently making use of Harley Investments, owned by Tommie Besser, to assist them with the sewage problem.
According to Besser it would cost the government about N$4 million to replace the entire system, while the council is expected to cough up about N$100 000 to fix and maintain a pump.
“This problem is not unique to Rehoboth, you must understand that. It is however unfortunate that all five pumps gave in. But at the moment we have three that work. The one in Block A, which is the central one that feeds into most neighbourhoods, is out of order,” he said.
He said it takes up to four to six weeks for a part to be delivered from overseas since it is not locally available.
JEMIMA BEUKES
Uirab said in a recent interview that he was trying to make sense of a chaotic environment as a result of piled-up debts, years of mismanagement and alleged corruption.
According to him he is forced to run council affairs on an ad-hoc basis since there is “no money” in reserve and the council can only deliver services such as water and electricity with the daily payments from residents.
Rehoboth residents owe the council N$106 million for services rendered and according to Uirab the affluent suburbs such as Blocks D and A must subsidise non-paying areas such as Blocks E and C.
“And do you know currently even the council employees here are standing collectively at N$1.3 million, an individual owes about N$30 to 40 000. How can it be? I have never seen this at any other municipality but in this place it has happened,” he exclaimed.
He added that about 95% of Block E residents owed the council N$20 000 or more.
Uirab said the council had entered into a prepaid arrangement with NamWater but it was expected to pay monthly instalments of N$700 000 in an effort to clear its N$29 million outstanding debt.
“If we do not pay that, then they will deduct the money from the money that we have paid for the units. And the worst part is that they can only update the units if they have received proof of payment, they are not keeping in mind that there are long queues in the bank or that all signatories are not always in the office,” lamented Uirab.
According to him, it costs the council N$2.5 million per month to supply the town with water, 40% of which is lost to burst pipes.
The council is however, often only able to scrape together N$500 000 or less hence the frequent disconnections.
Infrastructure
According to Uirab the town cannot afford to maintain the water infrastructure and the town's streets without government intervention.
“I receive a lot of complaints from residents, but we do not even have a grader and no heavy-duty machine to fix the roads,” he said.
Meanwhile, for the last few weeks the town has been flooded with sewage, which is threatening residents' health as well as the groundwater resource.
“It is really a big problem. As a result the Ministry of Environment and Tourism has revoked our permit and declared us unfit to manage the evaporation pond,” said Uirab.
He added that the sewerage infrastructure, which dates back to the apartheid government more than three decades ago, was no longer reliable.
“We simply do not have the capacity to manage the pumping station, if any problem arises then we must call in the help of private companies,” he said.
The council is currently making use of Harley Investments, owned by Tommie Besser, to assist them with the sewage problem.
According to Besser it would cost the government about N$4 million to replace the entire system, while the council is expected to cough up about N$100 000 to fix and maintain a pump.
“This problem is not unique to Rehoboth, you must understand that. It is however unfortunate that all five pumps gave in. But at the moment we have three that work. The one in Block A, which is the central one that feeds into most neighbourhoods, is out of order,” he said.
He said it takes up to four to six weeks for a part to be delivered from overseas since it is not locally available.
JEMIMA BEUKES
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