Andrew Kathindi
City of Windhoek (CoW) has warned that the city could be headed for trouble if retrenchments continue.
The City’s Acting Strategic Executive for Finance and Customer Services, Samuel Mutonga said although CoW would be minimally affected by recent job loses as the majority of those losing jobs come from the informal settlements – a low contributor to the City’s revenues —but if the trend is extended to Windhoek’s middle and upper class, the development could spell trouble for the municipality.
This comes after numerous companies around the country have been notifying their employees on their intentions to slash their staff numbers by retrenching. This position could be worsened after government lost a court ruling which had prohibited employers from retrenching or cutting their workers’ salaries in half because of the impact brought on by COVID-19.
“Those that might have been retrenched are the people in small businesses that have minimal impact in terms of our revenue. But when I look at the demographics, the majority of the residents of Windhoek, who are bill paying customers, those have been minimally affected by this. But, then we’re in trouble if these retrenchments continue to increase,” Mutonga said.
He added, “For example, our water sales from the informal settlement when we had the connected standpipes, when you look at the statistics it just gives us about N$1.2 million and N$1.5 million per month in terms of water sales, compared to N$67 million of the total water sales for the whole of Windhoek.”
Mutonga told Windhoek Observer that CoW has recorded a 10 percent decrease in the revenue collected, while the city’s debt has increased to N$984 million.
“The city’s debt grew by N$144 million, during the COVID-19 outbreak in the country from N$840 million at the start of April to N$984 million at the end of May. He said uncertainty was causing residents to hold on to their cash. Recent collections data, however, shows a return to normality,” he said.
Mutonga said the City had collected around N$293 million during the period under review, compared to the N$319 million it was able to bring in at same time last year.
“So, we hope that maybe things will improve. But the data for June will give us a true reflection, whether people will continue with their payment pattern due to the pandemic, or they are going to improve and go back to the normal.”
The City generates around N$300 million in revenues a month while its operational budget currently stands at N$4.3 billion, of which 36 percent goes towards remuneration.
CoW’s capital expenditure budget is around N$236 million.
Meanwhile CoW Head of IT and Acting CEO, Reckliff Kandjiriomuini, has said the City has cut its budget to the bone as part of cost cutting measures.
“In terms of staff costs, we haven’t introduced salary increases. We also have put a moratorium on filling vacancies. We are redeploying and seeing how we can optimise the existing staff. If there is a new position to be replaced, it has to be submitted to management committee,” Kandjiriomini said.
He further noted, “We will fill a position if there is a resignation and we need to replace someone, because that’s in the existing budget. The objective is not to increase any expenditure whatsoever, but rather to cut and curb.”
