Niël Terblanché
Gabriel Kanyanga, the Mayor of Rundu, has announced that the border town’s municipality is considering taking over the distribution of electricity to residents due to dissatisfaction with the current regional electricity distributor, Nored.
Kanyanga expressed his concerns during a stakeholders’ consultation meeting where Nored proposed tariff increase for 2024-2025 was presented.
Kanyanga indicated that Nored’s service delivery has been subpar, leaving Rundu in the dark despite the company generating revenue from electricity consumers.
He stressed that the municipality does not benefit from the sale of electricity under the current arrangement.
“We are looking into taking over the electricity supply responsibilities because we are continuously disappointed by Nored,” Kanyanga stated.
According to the mayor, managing the electricity distribution locally would streamline the process and potentially improve service delivery.
Kanyanga said the last time the town received an annual financial report from Nored was in 2017.
He said that was also the last year that the company declared a dividend of N$7.2 million which was also split between shareholders.
Kanyanga said that it remains a mystery how the dividends were split.
“I have been asking them to share the proof of payments but I am still waiting on a response,” he said.
Kanyanga also explained that there have been talks to restructure Nored so that agreements for electricity supply are placed directly with local authorities and dismantle the Local Authorities Electricity Company.
“If you look at the Cenored and Erongored setup, their approach has been very beneficial to the local authorities. I think the set-up of Nored was rushed,” he said.
In the current set up all local authorities are treated equally irrespective of their contributions.
Rundu is the highest consumer of electricity among the local authorities that is being served by Nored.
However, Nored’s acting chief executive officer, Toivo Shovaleka, argued that the Rundu Town Council could see increased revenue and benefits by adopting the existing NORED shareholding structure.
Shovaleka said that the proposed tariff increases for 2024-2025 will budget for issues such as the lack of streetlights and the maintenance of current infrastructure.
In its tariff increase application, NORED proposed a 7.7 percent hike, following an eight percent increase in tariffs by Nampower earlier this year.
During the presentation of the town’s 2024-2025 draft budget and municipal tariffs, residents voiced their frustration over the inconsistent water supply.
Some households have experienced dry taps, while others have no water access at all, leading to incidents of vandalism of water supply pipes in the Sun City location as residents attempt to gain access to water.
Town Engineer Sackey Shopati reassured the community that the council plans to drill more boreholes, supported by a recent study identifying 38 potential sites to be funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform.
Additionally, the municipality intends to construct booster lines to improve water supply to Sun City and Sikanduko.
Shopati also mentioned that NamWater has appointed a contractor to build a larger water reservoir to enhance water pressure in the town.
The town engineer attributed the water supply challenges to the rapid urbanisation and expansion of Rundu’s informal areas, where many residents demand services from the council without contributing to the costs.
