Otavi’s toilet deal questionable

THE Otavi municipality is considering to issue an exempted tender for a South African company to construct 300 pit latrines for N$55 000 each in a deal worth between N$16 million and N$22 million.

Otavi town chief executive Moses Matyayi confirmed to The Namibian last week that there are plans to spend N$55 000 on each toilet for residents of a new informal location called New Cairo.

The N$55 000 budgeted for each toilet is enough to build a super low cost house. For instance, the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia- a grassroots housing organisation – last year said prices for their houses range from N$30 000 for a one-bedroom house to N$50 000 for a two-bedroom house.

Matyayi said the council would need around N$12 million for the tender. Sources said the amount being charged is N$75 000 per toilet and that there are officials who are likely to get kickbacks for pushing through this tender.

The initial price per toilet was N$50 000 but some sources are insisting that the price went up to N$75 000.

The tender was given to Grove Point, a South African company, which sources said is being used as a conduit to enrich council officials and other businesspeople at the town who are lined up for bribes.

Even though sources said some residents were coerced with food this year to endorse a letter supporting the toilet project, there appears to be a strategic decision to move residents from the previous location to a new one to cash in on the toilet tender.

Calculations show that the Otavi administration would need anything between N$16,5 million and N$22 million to fund the project.

What further irked some residents is the fact that the council might spend the millions on toilets for residents who might be moved to another location later since the area has not legally been designated to accommodate residents.

Matyayi said the tender was exempted and rushed because the issue of solving the deplorable conditions of the residents was “urgent”.

The Namibian has in the past reported on a trend at state entities, where they request tender exemptions under the guise of urgency or security concerns or to empower small and medium businesses, while the real reason is to benefit companies owned by people close to officials in the buying process.

Matyayi admitted that disgruntled residents who did not want to be moved to the new location wrote to President Hage Geingob earlier this year, complaining that they are being moved to an area too far and unaffordable to them.

Geingob then directed minister of urban development Sophia Shaningwa to intervene. Matyayi and the mayor of the municipality were summoned to the ministry to explain the issue.

According to Matyayi, the deputy minister of urban development, Derek Klazen, was dispatched to Otavi to observe the living conditions at the area from where the Otavi residents do not want to move.

Matyayi said Klazen was not impressed with those conditions and said the ministerial stance had prompted them to go ahead and urgently ask Grove Point, a South African company he said was endorsed by the urban ministry as”credible and certified”, to build the toilets.

The Otavi executive said the company has not yet started constructing the toilets but defended the deal saying the system would lift the burden from the current traditional sewer system because of the water recycling component of the toilet set-up.

Asked about the collusion of councillors and Otavi executives in pushing for this multimillion dollar deal, Matyayi said: “My brother, if there is somebody who has evidence about that, let them go to the Anti-Corruption Commission or the police”.