EDITORIAL: Minister Sankwasa cannot duck accountability

Minister Sankwasa James Sankwasa’s push for accountability among newly elected councillors over municipal debts is, on its face, a welcome and necessary intervention. It would indeed be the height of hypocrisy for councillors drowning in debt to demand payment discipline from residents.

But accountability cannot be selective. It cannot be demanded loudly from others while whispered away when it turns inward.

While calling councillors to order, Sankwasa has maintained a tight lid on his own reported N$174 000 water bill owed to NamWater. Instead of addressing the matter with transparency, he has chosen deflection – accusing this newspaper of conspiring with shadowy forces to derail his ambitions ahead of next year’s Swapo congress. Such claims, repeated both in print and on radio, cannot sanitise his obligations.

When the issue first came to light, the minister’s response was not one of accountability but hostility. Attacks on journalists, including xenophobic remarks directed at a Zimbabwean-born reporter, only deepen the concern. Public office demands composure, responsibility and openness – not personal attacks and conspiracy theories.

Those who demand accountability must embody it. A minister pursuing indebted councillors cannot simultaneously sidestep legitimate questions about his own obligations. The Swapo congress is neither a shield nor a distraction from public duty.

NamWater depends on timely payments from its customers to sustain water supply across the country. When large debts go unsettled, the consequences are not abstract – they affect service delivery to communities. This is not merely an administrative issue; it touches on a basic necessity of life.

Accountability, if it is to mean anything, must be consistent, transparent and universal. It cannot bend to rank, ambition or convenience. Minister Sankwasa is right to demand discipline from councillors – but he must also lead by example.