Bethanie Village Council Chairperson Diederik Frederick has said the lack of administrators in key positions at the village council hinders the delivery of service to the inhabitants of the village.
In an interview with Nampa here on Wednesday, Frederick said for the past eight months or so, the village council had only one substantive appointee, making it difficult for the village council to function smoothly.
“We have council meetings and take resolutions, but such resolutions cannot be carried out because of the lack of administrators. Right now we only have one substantive appointee, Reginald Kennedy, who is the accountant and acting chief executive officer. He is the human resource manager, technical head and the list goes on, he wears all those hats and it is really difficult for us to carry out resolutions to the benefit of our people,” he stressed.
The village council has not had a CEO for three years since Hendrik Gaobaeb resigned.
According to Frederick interviews were held on three occasions but no candidate was successful.
“In the past we did interview people for some of these positions but candidates fall out at interview level. Even the interest of people applying here is very low, we do not have more than three applicants per position, other people also come and use this place as a stepping stone to higher grounds, that’s why we have no staff because people come, stay for a while and leave,” he said.
He further said council will continue to advertise the vacancies and will bring in the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development to help search for candidates to fill the vacant positions.
“We have written a letter to the ||Kharas Regional Council so that we can have people seconded to help us, but we are still waiting for their response. Many people say Bethanie is too far. I think it’s best we get people from here but that becomes difficult as our people do not have the qualifications nor the skills,” Frederick said.
The chairperson also revealed that a finding by the Electricity Control Board in 2021 indicated that the village council is operating at a loss of 67 per cent in electricity due to their outdated and ageing system.
“Our system is very old, the finding said that when the electricity enters our grid, we are losing 67 per cent of the electricity. That affects revenue collection, we are paying NamPower 100 per cent while we are losing 67 per cent of what we receive,” he added.
Source: The Namibia Press Agency