Windhoek councillors won’t accept blame for Volker’s death

If the councillors argue that they found Windhoek as it is now, logical reasoning surely will tell us that nothing can be the same in four years. Either it deteriorates or improves.

Wonder Guchu

Maybe the name Theodor Volker does not mean anything to most people, especially the City of Windhoek councillors.

By way of introduction, Volker is the 87-year-old man who drove through a flooded river in Windhoek on Tuesday, February 4, 2025, hours after celebrating his birthday.

Unlike other motorists whose cars were swept away by the floods in the capital city, Volker could be the only one in recent history whose body was later recovered in a riverbed in Dorado. It was on its way to the Goreangab Dam, where the floods dump everything.

Dorado is on the other side of the upmarket Auasblick suburb, where Volker’s car was swept away on the Sean McBride Street low-lying bridge. He was going to drop off two women at a bus stop.

Maybe this has nothing to do with the City of Windhoek councillors, who might argue that motorists are warned not to drive through flooded rivers.

They might also say they neither control the weather nor when some die. After all, there are warning signs for people not to cross flooded rivers.

Theodor Volker’s car after the floods had battered it and thrown his body out

The current councillors will be correct to say that they had nothing to do with the mother and her three-year-old daughter, who were swept away in their sleep in Nalitungwe informal settlement in Windhoek in April 2018.

They are correct because most of them were not sitting in council then. The councillors are also correct because people are not supposed to put up shacks in riverbeds.

The councillors can also argue that they had nothing to do with the death of five homeless men swept away by the flood while sleeping under a bridge near Game on December 14, 2022.

They are correct because, after all, the homeless men were sleeping under a bridge and not in a proper house. Who in their rightful minds can leave their homes to sleep under the bridge and risk being swept away by the floods?

But honestly, the City of Windhoek councillors have everything to do with all this. Yes, they may say it was like that when Swapo had unfettered council control.

They could be correct, but remember that this council prided itself as the ‘progress forces’, whatever that means. It is the first council of more opposition parties with the majority of councillors.

In the past four years, this council has had four opposition mayors and more control of the management committee than the Swapo Party.

If the councillors argue that they found Windhoek as it is now, logical reasoning surely will tell us that nothing can be the same in four years. Either it deteriorates or improves.

This brings us where we are today: did the progressive forces improve the Windhoek residents’ lives, or will they leave those lives in a worse situation than before 2020?

The road infrastructure

The only things visible concerning road infrastructure under the current progressive forces are the robots at the corner of Winnie Mandela Street (formerly Otjomuise Street) and Eveline Street.

Apart from that, one can talk about the disappearing yellow cones dotting Florence Nightingale and Kuaima Riruako Streets.

There has been justification that the council did not fund the failed and embarrassing cones project. But whichever way one looks at it, no donor would love to see their money wasted that way.

Ultimately, it’s not about donor funding but utter failure and total confusion within the Windhoek City Council. Had the cones projects succeeded, Namibians would have benefitted, not the foreign donor’s countrymen.

Most probably the only legacy for years to come

It would be a disgrace if this council claims flowers for the Peter Nanyemba Road dualisation. Ongos is working on that road to give access to their housing estate at the back of Havana Informal Settlement.

Otherwise, most roads have not remained the same in the past four years but deteriorated because nothing can stay the same for that long.

When robots break down, the council may take days to fix them. Of course, the councillors will say this is an administrative issue, but do they care to find out what is happening around them?

The low-lying bridges issue needed attention if the progressive forces were that much progressive. They knew about all these unresolved problems, which they will leave unresolved when their five-year term ends.

It is, therefore, neither here nor there for the councillors to fold their arms and dissociate themselves from what is happening now. They were residents before going to council and will remain residents when they are not councillors.

Housing provision

Maybe the progressive forces have forgotten some of their promises made not so long ago regarding providing houses to the homeless.

The mother and her three-year-old had their shack in the riverbed because of Windhoek’s shortage of land and proper planning.

The recent flooding destroyed shacks in Otjomuise and left more than 1,000 people homeless. They had their shacks in the riverbed because of the land issue.

Fortunately, the families have been relocated, but what about thousands more whose shacks stand in the riverbed waiting for the floods to wash them away?

Just imagine the number of lives that could have been lost had the floods that swept through Otjomuise happened during the night when people were fast asleep.

Relocating the Otjomuise families is a piecemeal solution because the councillors have not thought of being proactive and organising to relocate all those whose shacks await the subsequent floods.

Former mayor Job Amupanda said Windhoek was targeting the creation of 7,000 erven in informal settlements and 3,000 informal areas in addition to the 5,000 erven to be created through a pre-allocation intervention as put forward in Council Resolution 31/02/2021.

In September 2021, the then AR mayor Job Amupanda said the City of Windhoek had registered Nova Actus Holdings (PTY) LTD to deal with land and housing development.

Amupanda said Nova Actus Holdings was the City of Windhoek’s subsidiary of the new municipality tasked to build low-coast houses.

According to Amupanda, the council had identified land in Cimbebasia for constructing 900 high-density housing units under a rental concept.

He said the area is south of Mataman Street, possibly where the late President Hage Geingob took the media for a tour in 2015 when the AR Movement was in its infancy and threatened a nationwide demonstration if the government failed to heed their call to give land.

“Develop plans and proposals for a Council Rental Housing Concept on a site measuring ± 24 hectares, south of Mataman Street in Cimbebasia with a potential yield of over 900 housing units.

Nova Actus Holdings was supposed to submit a funding proposal within six months of the announcement. That could have been around March 2022.

Amupanda also said Windhoek was targeting the creation of 7,000 erven in informal settlements and 3,000 informal areas in addition to the 5,000 erven to be created through a pre-allocation intervention as put forward in Council Resolution 31/02/2021.

This is not an Amupanda issue but a collective issue that needed all the councillors to pull their weight behind him.

Squabbling and catfights

Apart from the endless squabbling and catfights over who should be mayor to earn N$70, 000 per month, none of these promises have materialised.

In December 2022, the councillors failed to elect a mayor after Swapo’s five and IPC’s four councillors walked out, leaving six councillors from AR (2), LPM (2), Nudo (1) and PDM (1).

In December 2024 the councillors walked out of the chambers because the presiding magistrate, Immanuel Udjombala, refused to give them recess.

When Nudo’s Joseph Uapingene became mayor in 2023, five other councillors wanted to be mayor. This was not about becoming mayor but just to mud the process.

The same thing happened two times in December 2024 when first the councillors walked out of the chambers because the presiding magistrate, Immanuel Udjombala, refused to give them recess.

The second time saw only four councillors turning up for the session.

Windhoek chief executive officer Moses Matyayi said they tried their “level best to get all council members to be present,” but only four came.

Apart from ugly jostling for the lucrative mayor’s position, the progressive forces could not agree on who should be the CEO to replace Robert Kahimise.

It took two years for the councillors to agree to appoint Conrad Lutombi, who declined the offer in December 2022.

The current CEO, Matyai, was only confirmed and assumed duty on August 1, 2023. 

Whose fault is Volker’s death

The simplest answer will be none but Volker himself because he drove across a flooded river. But do we ever ask ourselves who should ensure the roads are safe, even for 87-year-old pensioners?

Volker undoubtedly paid his taxes and rates, and those whose salaries came from his contributions were supported to ensure his safety.

The councillors cannot and should not hide behind flimsy excuses of warning signs and all the rigmarole they can dig up; their duty is to provide proper and safe roads.

They cannot also blame bylaws for standing between them and their duties because bylaws are manmade and can be changed by men.

The saddest thing is that the councillors and indeed Windhoek residents move on as if everything is okay. Perhaps, that is how easy it has become – just forget it all and move on.

Today, it is Volker; who will be next?

Wonder Guchu is Future Media Group manager for news