By:Justicia Shipena
Independence Patriots for Change (IPC) councillors have walked out of the the City of Windhoek (CoW) council chambers yesterday, reasoning that the house was “not in order”.
The city council was convened to elect new office bearers for the position of mayor, deputy mayor and management committee members.
However, this could not take place after both Swapo and IPC councillors opted to not participate in the elections. The action by the councillors resulted in the council postponing the meeting until further notice due to a lack of a quorum.
“We saw that there is no order in the chambers, that is why we decided to stay away. Not to say we did this because the fellow Swapo councillors decided to walk out of the chambers, no, there is a reason why we walked out,”said Ndeshihafela Larandj, an Independent Patriots for Change(IPC) councillor.
Larandj said IPC councillors are guided by principles of honesty, integrity and rule of law.
“Once we observe that all these elements are lacking, we cannot stand and watch, nor can we support unruly behaviour,” she said.
Swapo councillors were the first to stage a walkout from the chambers after the party’s councillor Queen Kamati asked that the meeting be adjourned for ten minutes.
Affirmative Repositioning (AR) councillor and the current chair of the management committee, Ilse Keister, while speaking to The Villager,said they were all supposed to take part in the elections but “something came up”.
In July this year, Keister moved a vote of no confidence in the management committee that ousted the previous committee with her being elected chairperson of the new committee.
“We want shared responsibility. We do not want one-party politics. Initially, that was the reason why I cast the vote of no confidence because there was party dominance and sabotage and we really did not want that,” she said.
Keister stressed that there is no crisis within the council and that everything is still intact.
“I am still the chairperson of management committee up until such a time that the re-elections will be taking place. I would like to tell the residents of the City of Windhoek that there is no crisis. We will agree to disagree and come to an amicable solution.”
Meanwhile, CoWmayor Sade Gawanas told The Villager that they have been clear since the vote of no confidence against the management committee.”We had the Swapo party come in with two councillors. The council had worked and everything was going smoothly, the management committee was functioning and we then said let us proceed that same way. Unfortunately, there were a few issues and hiccups and now we hear the Swapo party has left and they will not partake in the elections.”
Gawanas said she will now be acting as mayor until council elections take place.
“I am still basically acting. I will still be the mayor for Windhoek until such time that we have elected the new office bearers,”she said.
At the back of it, urban and rural deputy minister Natalia //Goagoses has urged the council to elect an ethical, hard-working mayor that will not come in for personal gains.
“When they go into those elections, they must not consider any other thing than the quality of leadership that this person must bring to the institution. It should be an election based on the quality and competence of this person,” //Goagoses advised.
Windhoek City Council In Limbo
