Maria David
THE Oshakati Town Council received over N$520 000 in pledges at its mayoral fundraising dinner held on Friday.
The funds will be used to address the critical needs of the residents.
Minister of Urban and Rural Development, Erastus Uutoni, said the establishment and effective administration of a mayoral development fund is vital to assist families, individuals and organisations within Oshakati where critical needs arise, as part of social responsibility by the mayor’s office.
Uutoni stated that this will allow the allocating grants by the mayor at his discretion in respect of applications made or at the mayor’s initiative in respect of cases set, which has become a vital part the community development.
“The fund will greatly assist members of the community in extreme need and other crisis or disaster relief situations and emergencies as deemed by the mayor,” he said.
He then appealed to the residents of Oshakati to pay for their municipal services on time to further assist council to re-invest in the development of the town.
Town Mayor Leonard Hango said like any other town in Namibia that experiences rural-urban migration as a result of people from various rural communities coming to Oshakati in search of employment, this often leaves many people living in deplorable conditions.
Hango stated that council has made significant efforts to better the living conditions of their people through various projects such as the formalisation of informal settlement by creating land and housing opportunities for their residents, of which Oshakati has been on the leading front to deliver on the mandate of land and housing developments in the entire country.
The Namibia Electricity Supply Industrial as collected pledged N$100 000, local businessman Abraham Shaanika of Sash trading and earthwork cc pleaded N$50 000 and several local companies pledged N$20 000.
