Protests planned against City

MASS protest action against the City of Windhoek is being planned by employers, trade unions and civil society after all attempts to stop the Municipality from implementing its controversial budget have so far failed.

The Namibian Employers’ Federation (NEF), Public Service Union of Namibia (PSUN), the Namibia Consumer Trust (NCT), Citizens for an Accountable and Transparent Society (CATS) and other independent unions met on Tuesday to discuss ways to voice residents’ growing discontent with the City’s approved spending spree and rate hikes contained in its 2009-10 budget.A mass march is imminent if the group can’t convince City Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Niilo Taapopi and Windhoek Mayor Matheus Shikongo to ‘open up a window of dialogue’, PSUN Secretary General Victor Kazonyati told The Namibian.In a statement issued by Kazonyati and NEF General Manager Tim Parkhouse yesterday, the group said the ‘ultimate aim is to make the City accountable to its residents this time as well as in future and to send a clear message to administrative officials and the office bearers that working toward a more humane society is what is required of them.’The City is also to have a more transparent approach in arriving at such important decisions, especially with regard to salaries and related increments as it is a public entity institution,’ the statement reads.Also on Tuesday, the Namibia National Students’ Organisation (Nanso) urged both Government and Swapo to intervene and stop the Municipality from going ahead with the budget.’We would also like to call on the Khomas Regional Co-ordinator Michael Mwinga of the Swapo Party to call his troops to order,’ Nanso Secretary General Lauren /Awaseb said.Singling out Windhoek Mayor Matheus Shikongo, CEO Taapopi, City Management Committee Chairperson Elaine Trepper and City Councillor Gerson Kamatuka, /Awaseb said ‘instead of making predatory measures to further exploit the already down-trodden masses of our capital, they must reverse the budget in total.’Nanso also called on Local and Regional Government, Housing and Rural Development Minister Jerry Ekandjo to intervene ‘to revoke the proposed salary increment and scrap the wasteful entertainment allowance’Other wasteful perks and allowances for senior management in the council must also be reviewed,’ Nanso urged. They also want Ekandjo to set annual maximum allowable rate hikes for all local authority councils in Namibia./Awaseb said the majority of the poor are students and learners and their parents are hit particularly hard by the increased tariffs.How can ‘an institution which is supposed to be mindful of its citizens’ allow ‘reactionary nonsense’ like this to persist, Nanso wanted to know.The student body pledged its support to any mass action or boycott against the municipal budget. It also called on all other youth organisations and movements to support Nanso in its call.Meanwhile, the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) continued to prepare for legal action against the City.NUNW Secretary General Evilastus Kaaronda told The Namibian that the union and its legal team had another meeting on Tuesday night.Two opposition City Councillors, Nico Smit of the Republican Party (RP) and Herbert Schultz of the Congress of Democrats (CoD) distanced themselves from the budget at the weekend.jo-mare@namibian.com.na