By Muyambango Ngumbele
Judea Lyaboloma Constituency Councillor, Hon. Humphrey Divai has called Zambezi Regional Council to share equally N$ 17.8 Million for rural electrification to all constituencies in Zambezi region .
He made his clarion call during the visit of Mr. Tom Alweendo , Minister of Mines and Energy on Monday.
He expressed his concern following the council’s resolution which was passed earlier by the Zambezi Regional Council(ZRC) which states that all Government Institutions and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), need to be electrified , but according to him this was not done because it did not include churches and Khutas.
“I wrote that letter myself to request electricity because as the council we don’t conduct meeting to discuss some of these issues that’s why I decided to write a letter” Divai said .
He added that projects have been held on electrifications but only schools are found to be included in the plan while the policy states that those vulnerable institutions within the surrounding area should be also electrified.
He lamented the fact that a resolution was made with the Zambezi Regional Council but there was no implementation on that.
“As we are waiting to receive that N$ 17.8 million allocated to our region, I would like to request those who will be tasked to implement that amount to share it equally to all constituencies of Zambezi.” He requested.
Councillor Divai is supporting much on the re-distribution of this allocated funds saying for several times the money had been used wrongly.
“I still truly believe that this N$ 17.8 million is not implemented for the electrification of the churches and khutas and you will witness that if you don’t agree with me”.
Honourable Divai also added by saying that there are some areas in his constituency where the conservancies and chamber of mines and energy contributed money and appointed contractors but the contractors abandoned these projects after being fully paid.
He mentioned that Zambezi Regional Council set down to resolve the matter, and tried to call the contractors even opening criminal cases against them. But they all came into conclusion that they are not the ones who appointed the contractors.
“We need those who found them to keep searching for the contractors, because the money is no more and projects are on hold now” Divai Explained.
Villages like Sauzuo, Lizauli, Sachona and Mbambazi where pole lines passes on top of people’s houses but they do not have access to electricity , and by this people had started to steal the AVC cables and poles because they have been there for more than eight (8) years now.
He proposed by requesting that this N$ 17.8 million dollars must be used to electrify these areas.
“Vision 2030 is at hand by now but we still have a lot of villages without electricity. Why don’t the government through NORED install transformers to enable the community connect from those transformers ? I am very sure that this might be a very profitable business for NORED,” He pointed out.
Divai said , Judea Lyaboloma Constituency has two national parks such as Nkasa Rupara and Mudumu national park, where a lot of people had lost their lives from trouble animal because of no electricity.
He therefore, requested electricity in those areas to reduce the number of people who die from animals.
Meanwhile , Executive Officer of NORED, Mr Toivo Shoveleka replied on installing transformers where he said if the community want a transformer , they should go to NORED’s office to request, then the transformer will be provided to them.
He also said , there are two areas in the region where NORED had helped with the transformers.
“We also aware of those contractors who abandoned the projects , but we are still waiting for a report from conservancies. as there are the one who appointed them, once a report reaches our office then we can be able to sit down and look for another alternative way on the matter.” Mr. Shoveleka spoke.
Mine and Energy Minister Alweendo further encouraged councillors to be supervising those contractors whenever the project is given to them and they should take responsibility very seriously.
“I don’t understand it when a contractor leaves the project but he is fully paid, who paid that contractor ? look for the one who paid him and that one should be held responsible for the money because how can you pay for something which is not complete?” Alweendo quashed.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.