Martin Endjala
Following recent pushback amongst council members, the City of Windhoek Council finally finally concluded its management committee member election yesterday.
Former deputy mayor Magdalena Lombardt and Councillor Bernardus Araeb were successfully elected as the two remaining members of the management committee which consists of five members
The proceedings were presided over by Windhoek Magistrate Ndapewa Celma Amadhila.
The two slots remained unoccupied since last year after numerous attempts by the council to elect the remaining seats to join the likes of Fransina Kahungu, Sam Nujoma and Austin Kwenani who were elected last year.
Both Lombardt and Araeb will serve for the remainder of 2023/2024. Joseph Uapingene who is the current deputy mayor, nominated Araeb who Nujoma seconded.
While Kwenani nominated Lombardt and was seconded by Kahungu. During his acceptance speech of his nomination, Araeb said that he would serve the residents to the best of his ability with reference to the council’s mandate of putting residents’ interests beyond their general welfare.
With the now concluded management committee, a chairperson will now be elected according to CoW Chief Executive Officer Moses Matyayi.
Meanwhile, this comes after the City of Windhoek again postponed a meeting to elect two additional management committee members last month.
The meeting was postponed because there were no nominations for the two management committee members. Prompting a postponement of the meeting to yesterday.
Last year, CoW only managed to elect three management committee members out of the constituting five.
All three members are from the Swapo Party, following an unexpected coalition between Swapo and the National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO), a situation other parties have against, citing that one party cannot dominate the management committee.
The management committee is responsible for making decisions that the municipality should execute, hence the urgent need for the operationalisation of the structure to be laid.
