The Rundu Town Council has expressed its desire to exit its partnership with the Northern Regional Electricity Distributor.

At a stakeholders' consultation meeting with the Electricity Control Board, Mayor Gabriel Kanyanga said NORED's services to the town were poor.

The Rundu Mayor said the council might not renew its agreement with the electricity distributor when the current one expires in three years' time.

Rundu, he says, has, among other signs of decline, become a dark town, despite NORED's mandate as responsible for the maintenance of street lights.

"Within NORED's area of operation, Rundu is the town that pumps a lot of money into NORED compared to any other town, but yet Rundu is the darkest town. Perhaps it's high time for us to see to it that we realize that a town like Rundu also needs to have a license in order for us to operate electricity on our own," Kanyanga lamented.

Kavango East Governor Bonifatius Wakudumo said NORED's maximum demand charge to businesses was killing the green scheme projects, which play a vital role in ensuring national food security and must therefore be exempted from such levies. "To tell you how NORED is treating the green schemes when they were operational, they charged these projects at maximum demand. Every green scheme's monthly contribution in terms of electricity is almost 800,000 to 1 million dollars every month. It's too expensive."

The Governor thus wants the ECB, as the regulator, to look into the rationale of some of the charges imposed by NORED.

NORED Head of Corporate Communications Simon Lukas promised to respond to the allegations of poor service delivery to Rundu at a later date.