Verify CoW accounts next week
Many Windhoek residents arrived at the doors of the municipality earlier today to have their accounts verified.According to community activist Shaun Gariseb, this was in response to an invitation from the mayor, Queen Kamati, who he said encouraged residents of the capital earlier this month to take up issues related to their account at the municipal offices.
Although municipal spokesperson Lydia Amutenya pleaded over the weekend that residents should not turn up in droves because it could overwhelm municipal systems, many people came looking for answers.
Unfortunately they were stopped at the door.
Chief municipal spokesperson Harold Akwenye, says the municipality will instead make arrangements to have verification done at branches in Khomasdal and Katutura from next week.
Akwenye says he spoke to several elderly people who were at the demonstration and established that the majority's problems have to do with dependence on state pension payments, which does not enable them to settle municipal debts. Others struggle to transfer property into their name after family members have long passed away.
“These are the type of concerns expressed by the elderly that are not related to errors in the payment system. We have identified irregularities in less than fifteen accounts, which we are actively investigating,” Akwenye said.