Warmbad community unhappy about Trust

THE Warmbad community in the South claim they are in the dark about N$2 million that Xemplar, a Canadian resource company, has donated to the Namura Karas Region Warmbad Community Trust.

Xemplar, through its Namibian subsidiary, Namura Minerals Resources, has been granted exclusive prospecting licences to explore for uranium in the Warmbad district. The trust was established in October 2007 to benefit the Warmbad community. The acting Chief of the Bondelswarts, Josef Christiaan, representing the Warmbad community as director on the Trust, claims the community members have not heard anything about the trust since the last meeting on February 29 last year.’Hopes of the community members to benefit from the Trust have been shattered because they don’t know till today what is on hand for them. I’m inundated with questions from the community about the developments of the Trust but I cannot shed light on the questions as I’m in the same boat as them,’ Christiaan said.’We don’t even know who were given signatory powers on the Trust account and at which commercial bank the account is held,’ he added. Namura Director Peter Koep, who also serve as a director of the Trust, has rubbished the claims. He said Christiaan is aware of the latest decisions taken by the directors. Koep said the decisions include N$150 monthly payments from the Trust to elderly Warmbad residents and financial assistance to children from the area to further their studies.Senior citizens will receive their N$150 payments from next month, and the payments will continue for a year, Koep said. He said the Trust’s board of directors is still waiting for the community to nominate five children for study bursaries.’Christiaan was present at the meeting where the funding of the abovementioned projects to the benefit of the community was discussed,’ Koep said.He further pointed out that Xemplar shareholders only contributed N$1 million to the Trust.Koep made it clear that the Trust was not established to benefit the Bondelswarts Nama clan. only’The aim of the Trust is to benefit the entire Warmbad community, the Bondelswarts are only part of it,’ he said. ‘The Bondelswarts Traditional Authority think that the Trust is responsible for covering its telephone and electricity bills,’ he remarked. luqman@namibian.com.na