Councillors must heed Ekandjo’s warning

I AM glad Local Government Minister Jerry Ekandjo told regional councillors to keep politics out of their work.

He needs to do the same with local authority councillors who keep on meddling in the actual running of municipalities, town councils and villages.
This they do for own benefit and to advance certain political agendas to the detriment of such councils and villages.
Addressing regional councillors in Oshakati this week, Ekandjo called on them to put political differences aside since such wrangling has become “a terminal cancer that eats the core of the service delivery to the communities”.
He wants it curbed right at the onset as new regional councillors start their tenure.
I agree with the former teacher’s assertion that some of them use council meetings to advance their own agendas or to settle scores with administrative staff.
But these things happen even more at town and village council level.
Operations of councils such as Okahandja, Keetmanshoop, Usakos, Omaruru and Otavi in the past were crippled by political gangsterism, factionalism and interference in the running of the institutions by people who should only have oversight duties.
Their role is to guide management with policies but many kept on making daily appearances at such institutions and roaming the corridors aimlessly.
Ekandjo’s refreshing candour needs to be followed up with action.
He needs to get senior staff at head office to keep tabs on such councillors for timely interventions that will call them to order.
The past 10 to 15 years have been unbearable for many staff at such councils because of politicians who failed to act as overseers who should interrogate why certain projects fail and their decisions are not implemented.
They need to build expertise in local authority management.
In fact, that is why it is important for political parties to nominate candidates with at least a decent level of management or organisational skills to represent them on such councils instead of those who shout their slogans the loudest.
Once council operations are in full swing, political charm can no longer be the major asset. It is a fact that leadership can’t be faked for too long.
Therefore councillors must be able to challenge administrative staff to greater heights instead of employing bully tactics which will discourage them or force them out.
Ekandjo spoke of “bad apples”.
There were many in the previous councils but we hope last year’s election has somehow cleaned up the mess and that the next five years will be marked by people full of zeal and purpose.
Since Swapo secretary general Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana spoke of “recall” during the campaign last year, I hope that it still rings fresh in the party’s representatives. The opposition should also keep tabs on their representatives and withdraw those who fail to live up to expectations.
For now, it is still too early to say how things will turn out. They were only elected two months ago.
Interestingly, many have yet to start with their work.
If we want to avoid the scenes of protest, of young and old fed up with the running of local authorities, we need to move away from what have become failures - to give a well-deserved service to our people instead of own political gains.