Over 20 employees of Oshakati Town Council made familiarisation visits at the City of Windhoek during the past five years, where they learned and “copied” some local authority best practices.
Some of those practices that have already been adopted and implemented at Oshakati include regulations such as the sand mining regulation, noise pollution regulation, dog regulation, and cemetery regulation.
Mayor of Oshakati Mr Leonard Hango said yesterday at the signing ceremony to extend the cooperation agreement with Windhoek that the agreement between Windhoek and the sister towns of Ondangwa, Ongwediva and Oshakati signalled a genuine intent by the present local authorities to advance the development of their respective towns and the City.
“All towns have challenges, challenges that are equally faced globally such as those that have emerged as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and the recent significant changes in the global economic environment, which is now causing significant inflations on commodities.
“Renewing these joint agreements today should enable us to share knowledge and skills pertaining to seeking amicable ways to assist our communities who are severely affected by these challenges that we face,” Hango said.
Hango pointed out that Oshakati has gained more from the relationship with the City of Windhoek.
“The acquired benchmarking ideas [from Windhoek] are such as: the water and sewerage section benchmarked on the idea of coming up with a treatment plant, as well as coming up with a water purification plant, of which Council can consider in the future, especially as our town is expanding.
“The usage of sewage treatment chemicals, procuring of protective overall gears for sewerage section employees and acquiring of mobile grinding machine for pipes and metals, which in fact have already been implemented by Council.
“Recently this year, our Planning, and properties department also benchmarked with the City with regards to building Inspection procedures, compliance procedures, land applications procedure leading to registration, Management of Council owned properties, amongst others.
“Indeed, we would like to register our outmost appreciation to City of Windhoek and our sister towns for their willingness to share knowledge with Oshakati.
“I am hopeful that strategic partnerships that we are about to sign today are a great step forward in assisting one another as towns by recognizing the key roles that our towns play in the development of our country.”
Deputy mayor of Windhoek Mr Joseph Uapingene who travelled to Oshakati to sign the new agreements with Oshakati, Ondangwa and Ongwediva said that Windhoek as the capital city has an obligation to play in assisting other towns in capacity building, sharing technical skills and entering into partnerships that will promote cooperation for the benefit of the residents of their respective towns.
In the photo: Joseph Uapingene (Windhoek), Leonard Hango (Oshakati), Tarah Shalyefu (Ongwediva), and Paavo Amwele (Ondangwa) toasting their new 5-year agreement to share ideas and skills.
