Month: January 2024

OSHAKATI: A 15-year-old boy died at Eenhana on Tuesday after he allegedly hit a grenade with a stick and it exploded.

Namibian Police Force Ohangwena Crime Investigations Coordinator, Deputy Commissioner Zacharias Amakali, said the incident occurred around 17h00 west of the Eenhana Town sewerage ponds.

The deceased has been identified as 15-year-old Penelao Nghilifavali Immanuel.

According to Amakali, Immanuel had been looking after goats with other boys at the time of the incident.

‘It is suspected that he picked up the grenade and hit it with the stick. It exploded and caused his death on the spot,’ he reported.

The deceased’s next of kin are informed and police investigation into the matter continues.

Source: The Namibia Press Agency

KEETMANSHOOP: The ||Kharas Regional Council is facing challenges due to its lack of a management committee, which amongst others affects the submission of financial statements and implementation of capital projects.

Acting Chief Regional Officer (CRO), Benedictus Diergaardt in an interview with Nampa on Tuesday said the running of the regional council heavily relies on the management committee (MC) and without it, administrators cannot execute their work effectively.

‘Everything must go through the management committee for approval. For development projects, the proposals come from settlement development committees, then to the regional development coordination committee and lastly to Council for fund approval, so right now, no new projects can be proposed,’ he said.

The ||Kharas Regional Council has been without a management committee since last June after the four Landless People’s Movement and three Swapo councillors failed to elect two members for the MC to join the chairperson, LPM’s Joseph Isaacks, d
uring the re-election of office bearers.

Diergaardt said the last time the council submitted financial statements to the Auditor General (AG) was when the 2019/2020 financial statements were submitted.

He said financial statements cannot be submitted to the AG because they need to be presented to the MC, then the council, before being submitted to the AG for a financial opinion.

‘With the absence of the AG’s opinion, we cannot establish what financial situation we are in. We also cannot determine if we are effective in delivering development. We are not sure if we are carrying out our mandate, which is to bring development to the people of this region,’ Diergaardt said.

Diergaardt further said the allocation of land for development cannot take place.

‘Even this morning I got a call from someone who wants to acquire land for development purposes, that process can also not go forward,’ he said.

He was however quick to point out that incomplete construction projects are continuing.

Regional councils are s
ubsidised by the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development while they also collect money through their settlement offices by providing services to residents in those settlements.

When asked how council manages to have an approved budget, Diergaardt said: ‘For us to have the budget approval, we call a special council meeting and during such a meeting the management committee is not really needed, so the budget can be approved through that special meeting.’

The acting CRO said he will seek the intervention of the urban ministry on the way forward regarding the recent suspension of the three Swapo Party councillors.

Last week Council suspended Oranjemund Constituency councillor, Lazarus Nangolo, Karasburg West Constituency councillor, Taimi Kanyemba and !Nami#Nûs Constituency councillor, Susan Ndjaleka.

‘As much as it is politics, the people affected by this whole situation are those on the ground, development is not coming to them. It does not matter from which constituency, everyone is impacted so the counci
llors elected by these people should ensure they deliver the services,’ said Diergaardt.

Source: The Namibia Press Agency

WINDHOEK: The City of Windhoek (CoW) says it is busy replacing the water distribution network in Groot Aub in order to start installing individual and community prepaid water meters.

This was confirmed by CoW spokesperson Lydia Amutenya in an interview with Nampa on Wednesday.

‘After that CoW will construct a bigger reservoir,’ she added.

This follows a request by Groot Aub community leader Demetrio Beukes, to construct additional water reservoirs as the existing one, he says was initially constructed to cater for less than 10 000 people. He added that the settlement’s growing population is making it difficult to have sufficient water for every household in the settlement.

‘The biggest challenge we have is that when the reservoir was made it was made for 6 000 to 10 000 people. With the influx of people our population is increasing. That small reservoir must now give 24 000 people water and there will always be a shortage,’ Beukes told Nampa.

Amutenya confirmed that approximately 24 000 people are curren
tly living in Groot Aub, but explained that Groot Aub’s water shortages are not linked to the reservoir’s size.

‘It is not the reservoir that is too small to cater to more people, but the total safe yield (abstraction from existing boreholes) that is limited to provide water to 10 000 people. We can only provide a maximum of 60m3 per hour from existing boreholes,’ Amutenya said.

CoW currently has six existing boreholes in Groot Aub, Amutenya said. The City recently announced that they successfully drilled a 200-metre borehole in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform. Seven additional boreholes will be drilled, CoW announced, adding that this will put an end to the settlement’s water shortages.

‘What needs to happen is after they are done drilling these new boreholes they need to build another reservoir and strategically put up tanks in each location so that those tanks can provide water for each location,’ Beukes told Nampa.

Groot Aub’s administration was officially taken ove
r by the City of Windhoek in 2017.

Source: The Namibia Press Agency

KEETMANSHOOP: Karasburg-based Young Brazilians (YB) Football Club head coach Galiel Pelwan says he is optimistic that his team will reach the top eight in the Debmarine Namibia Premiership 2023/2024 campaign.

YB are seventh on the Premiership standing log with 15 games left for the season.

Pelwan in an interview with Nampa said they hope to win at least eight of the 15 games.

‘We will be happy if we make it to the top four too, but our aim is to finish in the top eight; we have to win at least eight games in this leg and we will be okay,’ said the coach.

During the Debmarine Namibia Premiership 2022/2023 campaign, YB finished in 13th position.

Pelwan said they have started the restructuring of the team and they expect to sign seven new players of which four are from South Africa.

‘During the first leg we had a small squad and most of them had injuries and were playing on painkillers, nobody knew that. We only had 18 players and when we had to travel, we had only 13 at most. We are not making excuses for
why we are where we are, but we had obstacles,’ he stressed.

Pelwan, who has 19 years’ experience in coaching and joined YB last year September, said the team faces financial burdens as it has no sponsors and the management has to run the team with their own funds.

‘Since I came it has been tough, I believe it unfair that the only team from the south in the Premier League sits without any sponsorship. I really believe in the management of this team, they are giving it their best under the circumstances. What I can promise the people of this region is not gold and diamonds, but I promise them hard work. Hard work and prayer will give us the results,’ said Pelwan.

YB will play their first game of the second leg against Young African in Gobabis on Saturday before facing Ongos FC in Windhoek on Sunday.

Source: The Namibia Press Agency