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Swakopmund and Rundu town councils sign twinning agreement

Swakopmund and Rundu town councils sign twinning agreement

By Adolf Kaure.

The Swakopmund and Rundu town councils recently signed a one-year twinning agreement during the latest monthly council meeting held in Swakopmund.

The agreement is aimed at strengthening, promoting and fostering the friendly relationship which exists between the local authorities and residents.

Speaking at the ceremony, Swakopmund mayor, Her Worship Dina Namubes expressed her gratitude to the Rundu town council for their interest in twinning with Swakopmund and highlighted the importance of housing provision to both councils’ residents.

”We have a great role to play in the growth of our nation, particularly the housing issue. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that corporate and shared knowledge, skills, and expertise to learn from one another and improve our service delivery for our people.”

”In light of this, the municipality of Swakopmund is currently assisting other local authorities in areas such as the procurement processes, revenue and debt collection, human resources, waste management, town planning and tourism and we are delighted to include your town as well.”

”As we sign this agreement tonight, I wish to emphasise two important factors that will help guide us in our journey,” she said. Namubes emphasised that in order for the agreement to be carried out effectively, a detailed action plan will have to be drawn up to determine the list of activities that will be carried out. As councillors, we need to have an exchange programme where we can, for example, attend each other’s council meetings and learn from one another.”

”I believe that this would help us in carrying out our duties better. It is also important that we arrange meetings where we cover topics of interest. This can be used by members of local authorities and politicians to share experiences, ideas and to discuss matters of mutual concern.”

The Swakopmund mayor also outlined the importance of teamwork as a helping factor in ensuring that the agreement is successful. ”When we work together as a team, we can achieve so much and I am positive that through this relationship we would go [from] strength to strength as well as strive to grow the community of Namibia by providing basic services.”

”We are immensely grateful for this relationship that will be cemented by the MOU and we look forward to working together as we strive towards excellent service delivery for our people.”

During his address, Rundu mayor His Worship, Gabriel Kanyanga said that the two town councils have a lot to learn from each other. “We will be able to learn more from you and at the same time, in areas that we are doing better, you will also learn more from us,” he said.

Some of the areas the Rundu mayor cited as growth opportunities to learn from Swakopmund town council include human resource management, administration, local economic development, tourism promotion, finance, information communication technology (ICT), infrastructure development, land delivery, public transport, law enforcement, town planning, urban development and environmental health as well as water, sanitation and waste management.

The mayor called on his fellow mayor to put aside political differences to focus serving the people who voted them into power.

”To tell you the truth, we might not be the best to lead our institutions. There might be some other people who might be better than us, but it is the chance that we were given to be able to lead them. With this chance, we can make sure that we bring changes and focus on service delivery for our towns’ residents,” said Kanyanga.

Representatives of the Rundu and Swakopmund town councils signed a twinning agreement at the most recent meeting of the Swakopmund Town Council. (Photograph by Adolf Kaure)


 

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