Enough is enough

CONCERNED RESIDENT OF WALVIS BAY WRITES:

Open Letter to the Mayor of Walvis Bay



Mr Mayor,

I am writing this letter out of sheer frustration and outrage over the appalling and disgraceful state of Walvis Bay.

It is a clear embarrassment that a town of such importance – our only viable business hub and port – has been permitted to fall into such ruin.

The residents of Walvis Bay are tired of empty promises, gross negligence, and, indeed, your outright failure, along with others in charge of municipal positions who are not held accountable for their poor work performance.

Let me spell it out plainly:

* The roads are, simply stated, a disaster. Not just bad – they are crumbling, potholed death traps that damage cars, threaten lives, and make our town look like a war zone at best, and like some backward African country with no resident-paid services at worst. Your attempts to fill potholes with sand and to provide touch-up services for tarred roads with substandard workmanship are nothing less than feeble and ridiculous – never mind grossly negligent.

* The rubbish dumps are a public health scandal. You, Mr Mayor, have been caught out – it is not just tyres being burned, but large sections of the rubbish dumps, because the mechanical machinery cannot be paid to operate for two hours a day due to a “lack of funds”. Burning waste at all hours – especially in the early hours of darkness, hoping residents will not see what you are doing – sends choking, toxic smoke over our homes. It stinks, it suffocates, and it is poisoning the very people you are supposed to protect.

You, Mr Mayor – of all people – who so glowingly boasted on NBC a few days ago about your role in the climate forum of mayors and how good this was for Walvis Bay. We, the residents, are not stupid! You may be one of three mayors chosen; however, your town is in an utterly disgusting shambles. We are tired of hearing the same old rhetoric about how the town will benefit from clean energy. Indeed, we are nothing but a filthy town with no clean, green energy under your watch. How can this be tolerated in 2025?

* Municipal laws. Where is law enforcement? Where is urban management? Just look at 44 Hage Geingob Street (directly behind the new Spar) as a case in point, where clearly, municipal laws are not being applied.

You, Mr Mayor – under your watch and with your incompetent municipal officials – are permitting this state of affairs. Those “millions of funds” which you proclaim are just waiting to be invested will never materialise unless you wake up to the filthy, toxic fumes your waste mismanagement generates and the third-world standard that has become the norm in Walvis Bay. Tourist visits and the number of ships docking will begin to decrease until none remain. Is this the legacy you want to leave behind?

Enough is enough. We are tired of hearing you repeatedly say, “There is a lot of potential.” Action is what we want to see. We don’t want to hear anymore. The people of Walvis Bay demand immediate action – not “reports”, not “excuses”, not “plans” – but real, visible action.

I am assuming you are aware that the municipality has a legal duty to provide basic services, to protect public health, and to uphold town planning regulations. Your failure to do so is not just incompetence – it is gross negligence, and indeed, a very real betrayal of public trust and an outright dereliction of duty.

We demand the following, without further delay:

1. A public commitment and timeline for urgent road repairs.

2. An immediate halt to all burning of waste, with safe landfill management put in place.

3. Strict enforcement of town planning laws to stop the spread of illegal structures.

If the municipality refuses to act, be assured that residents will no longer remain silent. Some may say the tone of this open letter is disrespectful – NO, it is specifically written so by an angry resident who has seen this town degenerate from one of the most well-run and financially independent municipalities in SADC.

The more complaints you receive over these matters, the deeper you bury your head in the sand or travel somewhere out of town, wasting more money without getting your own house in order – and hope those complaints will stop.

We will escalate this matter to higher authorities, the media, the ministries of tourism and industry – and wherever good people will listen – because one can only believe that there are no more good people left in your administration who are willing to speak up and take action. The patience of Walvis Bay has run out.

Mr Mayor, must mass protest(s) first take place before you act? Must burning tyres on the municipal grounds be the event that finally stirs you from your slumber and galvanises your municipal officials into doing their jobs properly?

This is your wake-up call. Start doing your job.

Yours in deep frustration



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