Elected political leaders are urged to ensure that services are delivered successfully and competently.

The Deputy Minister of Urban and Rural Development Natalia |Goagoses made the call at the opening of the annual Hardap and ||Kharas Regional Mayors and Chairpersons Forum at Keetmanshoop.

The three-day event is aimed at exchanging concrete actions and finding innovative solutions to achieving sustainable rural and urban development.

|Goagoses says that her ministry is obligated to provide support in terms of capacity building, initiating and implementing policies and programmes that promote welfare to enrich the lives of all Namibians.

"A councillor is a people's servant and the responsibilities that are entrusted upon you as political leaders are of enormous magnitude as communities depend on your decisions and performance, over the years it also becomes a tendency of some councillors using the council and management committee meeting platforms for their own personal agendas or to settle scores with administrative staff or among themselves and maladministration has been the order of the day in some councils."

On his part Keetmanshoop Mayor, Mcdonald Hanse urged local authority councillors to work across party lines for the benefit of all residents.

"We govern in real time and reality, we must never step back when duty calls. Let's be excited about the future and the opportunities, councils must define a better future for the citizens of our towns and villages. In this political climate we as councillors must fight to occupy the radical centre, where idealism meets reality and we must put people first over politics, when we work across party lines it's good for our people, when we find common ground we find neighbours who share the dream of a better future that we are working for."

The engagement will end with the signing ceremony of cooperation agreements between the two regions.